CHAPTER XXII

POPULAR PREACHERS-THE REV. MR. FOSTER.

WHEN the friends met the next morning, Rowland wanted Charles to accompany him to Surrey Chapel to hear the Rev. Rowland Hill. It was a charity sermon, and the place was much crowded; however, by following hard upon the heels of Mr. Hill as he walked to the pulpit, they gained a commodious seat in the enclosed department. The sermon had nothing particular to do with the text, except as a motto. Indeed the preacher said, "I am no first, second, and third man. I preach right on the gospel of the blessed God-as his Spirit shall direct my mind to bring a sinner to the Lord Jesus Christ"-and it is wond rful what means God sometimes uses to impress men: by the foolishness of preaching he saves them that believe. How very careless men are respecting the salvation of their souls; but if their persons are in danger, what an outcry do they make! I was once goi g through Bedfordshire, and I came to a chalk pit where some men were at work on a sudden the excavated ground gave way and buried one man in the ruins, and if you had heard the shrieks and terrors of the others as they fled from the place, you would never have forgotten them. So the congregation fled at the cry of Korah, Dathan, Abiram,

and their company, when the ground clave asunder and swallowed them up and all that appertained unto them: 'Lest the earth,' they said, 'should swallow us up also.' But preach to them as often, as loudly, and as terribly as we can about the day of judgment and the torments of hell,-they will not believe they will not flee from the wrath to come. No! they go on till they fall into the pit, and then their outcries and wailings will drown those of the chalk diggers, and of the unbelieving company of Korah. Were men to pray to God as mightily for deliverance before the wrath comes as they will when the storm arrives, they would escape. And when men are in earnest after an object they will pray fervently. I was once walking through my brother's park in Shropshire, and I heard a man praying. Now you know it is very unusual to hear a man praying in a park : so I stood still and listened to his prayer. He seemed to have but one petition, but this he repeated over and over again with great emphasis. And what do you think was that one object of his prayer which he so often repeated? What was he praying for? He was praying that God might DAMN HIS SOUL!!" The congregation, who had been held in silence and suspense during this tale, and the questions proposed, now gave vent to their feelings in a kind of general groan. After pleading the object of the charity, which he stated very strongly, he said, "I advise all here present that do not wish to give anything, not to encumber the passage of the benevolent who want to pull out their purses, but to go out by themselves at that little back door: there nobody will see them but God, and they don't mind him, for they seldom have God in their thoughts. "Then” you say, "we must all give something, or you will think and say hard things of us." "Oh no! mistake me not. I by no means wish all to give. I do

not wish any bankrupts to give; nor those that are embar

rassed, and expect soon to fail-nor those that are in debt -No; rather pay your creditors, and provide things honest in the sight of all men. Be just before you:are generous.' The consequence of such arguments of dissuasion from giving was a larger collection than was ever before known, as none wished "to slip out where none but God could see them"-nor to be suspected of "debts or bankruptcy by putting nothing into the plate."

After the sermon Rowland said, "Come in, and I will introduce you to Mr. Hill, in the vestry." "Ah! you young Oxford scholars," he said, "I am glad to see you; learn to preach Jesus Christ, and him only." While he was speaking, who should enter but Dr. Milner, Dean of Carlisle. "Ah! Doctor," said Mrs. Hill, "who should have thought you were here to witness my odd tales and remarks in the pulpit? But when the fit is on, and droll associations and ideas strike my mind, I must out with them, were I to lose my head when I leave the pulpit. But Doctor, pray excuse me; I hope my aim is to rouse sinners to run to Jesus Christ." "Say nothing, say nothing of apology, Mr. Hill," said the Doctor. "After all-say what they will—this slap-dash sort of preaching does the most good."

The friends left the meeting, and had to pass the Leverian Museum, since become the Surrey Institution, and now employed as a lecture room, music room, &c., &c., near Blackfriars Bridge. Rowland invited Charles to enter, saying he would be much delighted to view the curiosities of nature and art and the various species of animals which were arranged according to their genera and species in beautiful order. After passing through the principal room, he attempted to open a gate to enter into the extensive range of rooms beyond him, which he had been entertaining himself with the idea of inspecting. But he was

stopped before a large mirror, which showed the ingenious deception; but in that mirror he beheld behind him the face of an old schoolfellow. He turned round-" Ah! Althorpe," he said, "I remembered you in the glass. I am glad to meet you; we always called you Volumes' from your love of books; and here I meet you in the midst of curiosities adapted to your taste." "I am glad to see you, Charles. I remember the two years we were together at the same school and read in the same class. You are at college I hear; I am learning the practical business of a scientific farmer, and am therefore diving deeper and deeper into geological studies; and a museum therefore particularly suits my taste." "Well then," said Charles, "what do you think of a speculation I met with in an old folio on Geology, in our college library, illustrated with large prints? The author says, that the flood flowed from north to south; hence it arises that we find the Derbyshire granite in small trituated granite stones and pebbles in Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire. He conceives, that when the convulsions took place, which heaved up the earth and left the bare crags and granite rocks on the tops of the numerous hills which form the seven miles sweep of the wilderness or forest of Charnwood, in Leicestershire, and the caverns of the Peak, in Derbyshire, it drove a vast stream of broken rocks over the whole space to the Chiltern hills, and left traces of the granite at a certain depth, which is now found of essential service to form public roads." Nothing more likely to be true," said Althorpe ; "recent discoveries prove the speculation not to be ill founded, for the sand-hills at Woburn, in Bedfordshire, that used to be almost impassable, have now a road made through them as solid almost as cement, made from a kind of slate or triturated granite or spar which has been lately discovered in these

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sand-hills at a certain depth, where it lies like a vein of iron discernible to passengers on the side of the excavated road, which has been cut through the sand-hills." Charles entreated his friend to join their party till the evening, with which Althorpe consented.

In the evening Charles said, "Now, Rowland, it is time for me to return the compliment by taking you to St. Antholin's, Watling-street, to hear the Rev. Mr. Foster, whom I met on Saturday evening at the parson and parsonette party' at Mr. Newton's. Althorpe, you will find him no common man." The three friends therefore went together; the sermon was very remarkable, and peculiarly struck the two collegians and Althorpe, as they were all ardent and persevering in their respective departments in the pursuit of knowledge. I shall therefore here introduce the heads of the discourse for the advantage of my studious readers.

Eccles. 1. last verse :-" In much wisdom is much grief, and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow."

"Solomon is supposed to have written the book of Ecclesiastes when far advanced in years, and taught by long but painful experience, that all was vanity. In the aspect of the text there is something very discouraging. But the truth of the sentiment, problematical as it may appear, I shall endeavour to establish by presenting it to you in different lights. It suggests to us, in the commencement, several practical lessons, viz., that God disappoints us in our pursuits, till we follow the way of life eternal-that God hedges up our way with thorns till we walk in the way of his commands, and that all our prospects become dark and dreary till the mind is opened to behold Jesus Christ as the light of life, for this is life eternal,' said our Lord, 'to know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.' I shall

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