It appears that the total sittings provided are 1,388,792, which is about double the provision of 1851, when the last religious census was taken, and is in the ratio of 34.55 per cent. to the population. Nevertheless, the aggregate deficiency is now 40 per cent. more than in 1851, owing to the vast increase of the population in the interval-70 per cent. The total accommodation includes a very large number of mission halls and rooms, which provide the means of public worship for no less than 258,894 persons. These mission stations are, it is believed, frequented by people who are more at home in them than in ordinary places of worship, and most of them are centres of religious and benevolent agencies, which more or less connect the poorer classes with those above them in position. A table is given showing the religious provision made in each of the 29 registration districts of London, the variations in which are great, ranging from 128.20 per cent. to the population in the city of London to 25.68 in Poplar. In eight of these districts the accommodation is less than 28 per cent., and in six it is over 40 per cent. In a group of Western districts the proportion is 34.9 per cent., and in an Eastern group it is 29 per cent. The ratio of provision made by the nine principal denominations is as follows:

Church of England.... 677,645
Congregationalists

172,547

Baptists.

136,178

Wesleyans..

96,410

Primitives

17,785

sittings is 48.8 per cent., showing that the Free Churches of London provide 24 per cent. more than the Established Church. It is also shown that since 1851 the former have increased the means of public worship at the rate of 1523 per cent.; the latter at the rate of 65.34 per cent.

Nor many Sundays ago a minister suddenly stopped in his sermon and sang a hymn. "If the members of the choir are to do the talking," he explained, "they certainly will permit me to do the singing." And then things in the neighbourhood of the organ became more quiet.

It is easier to do Christ's work, and to do it well, if one allies himself with Christ's followers. Not one Christian in twenty can maintain the desired standard of personal piety and spiritual efficiency outside of the Church. If he could, it would not justify his remaining without. Every such Christian may do much good, but he also is certain to do grave harm. Inevitably his example is quoted-and misrepresented-by others, and often is even made an excuse for not beginning the Christian life at all. Guerrilla warfare is neither very respectable nor very effectual, and the unattached Christian, so to speak, is neither as safe nor as consistent in his independence as he needs to be, nor does his work for God prove as fruitful. He always is at a disadvantage, because he refuses to put himself into harmony with the nature of things, and the plan of Christ, which bids him become an earnest and active Church member, as well as a Christian.-Congregationalist.

action. No pulpit pugilism, but dignified gentlemanly, serene; the masterly union of the tips of the fore-fingers; the twiddling of the watch seal, or the gilt barnacles; the passing of the fingers through the hair, as indicating intellectual pressure; the raising and depressing of the hand at intervals of ninety seconds, like the sweet little girl who reciteth a piece-up when she says "hangels," down when she says "ell." We dote on such darling ministers at our chapel. They are gentlemen. An "oldfashioned Methodist " once heard our minister, and said his manner was namby-pamby, and that his simpering would never arouse men's consciences. Do you not think it was impertinent? Just as though an antediluvian Methodist knew anything about preaching. I suppose he wanted one of his own sort, that he might shout "Glory!" Does he not wish he may get it?

We are told, sir, that feeling is generally the measure of action. I overheard a gentleman say that he had seen Benjamin Disraeli, when he warmed up, hammer the chest of state on the table of the House of Commons like any ranter preacher. But a preacher is not like a secular statesman, or one of the vulgar herd. Nothing can excuse his departure from graceful placidity. Our people can see nothing in human wickedness or human damnation to get excited about; and if such things should stir a minister's heart to his lowest depths, his first duty is to suppress his feeling-at least, not to show it so vulgarly as by giving me a crack. Let him store his electricity lest someone should be shocked. Far better for people to go quietly on to the eternal world than for any preacher

to give vent to his latent feeling, and talk as Jehu drove.

But, after all, I will rest on my cushion in peace. I contemplate the future without fear. Let my be-hammered relatives take comfort. Soon the Bible-thumper will be a creature of the past, an oddity of history, the fossiliferous relic of an extinct past. We are moving on very nicely. Great is respectability. Decorous propriety shall be more than conqueror.

P. J. Wright bade young ministers either "Smite with the hand or stamp with the foot," but no one remembers it. Well they don't! Let such words die, for they can have no place in that modern Methodist respectability which

comes to us in "stiff covers, gilt."

Oh, if Conferences would but expel from the Colleges every excitable, enthusiastic student, and teach the rest to be gentlemen first, and then preachers ! What glorious era would dawn upon us! At one arch-angelic bound the ministry might thus reach that perfection toward which it so mellifluously moves.

ANOTHER PULPIT BIBLE.

RELIGIOUS ACCOMMODATION

IN LONDON.

THE Nonconformist of February 12 published a special supplement containing statistics of the accommodation provided by the various religious bodies in what is called Inner London, the estimated population of which last Midsummer was 4,019,361. The information has been collected during the last two years by the London Congregational Union with a view to discover the work done by all denominations and existing deficiencies,and is derived from all official sources.

It appears that the total sittings provided are 1,383,792, which is about double the provision of 1851, when the last religious census was taken, and is in the ratio of 34.55 per cent. to the population. Nevertheless, the aggregate deficiency is now 40 per cent. more than in 1851, owing to the vast increase of the population in the interval-70 per cent. The total accommodation includes a very large number of mission halls and rooms, which provide the means of public worship for no less than 258,894 persons. These mission stations are, it is believed, frequented by people who are more at home in them than in ordinary places of worship, and most of them are centres of religious and benevolent agencies, which more or less connect the poorer classes with those above them in position. A table is given showing the religious provision made in each of the 29 registration districts of London, the variations in which are great, ranging from 128.20 per cent. to the population in the city of London to 25.68 in Poplar. In eight of these districts the accommodation is less than 28 per cent., and in six it is over 40 per cent. In a group of Western districts the proportion is 34.9 per cent., and in an Eastern group it is 29 per cent. The ratio of provision made by the nine principal denominations is as follows:

Church of England.... 677,645
Congregationalists

172,547

Baptists.

136,178

Wesleyans.

96,410

Primitives

17,785

sittings is 48.8 per cent., showing that the Free Churches of London provide 24 per cent. more than the Established Church. It is also shown that since 1851 the former have increased the means of public worship at the rate of 152.3 per cent.; the latter at the rate of 65.34 per cent.

Nor many Sundays ago a minister suddenly stopped in his sermon and sang a hymn. "If the members of the choir are to do the talking," he explained, "they certainly will permit me to do the singing." And then things in the neighbourhood of the organ became more quiet.

Ir is easier to do Christ's work, and to do it well, if one allies himself with Christ's followers. Not one Christian in twenty can maintain the desired standard of personal piety and spiritual efficiency outside of the Church. If he could, it would not justify his remaining without. Every such Christian may do much good, but he also is certain to do grave harm. Inevitably his example is quoted-and misrepresented-by others, and often is even made an excuse for not beginning the Christian life at all. Guerrilla warfare is neither very respectable nor very effectual, and the unattached Christian, so to speak, is neither as safe nor as consistent in his independence as he needs to be, nor does his work for God prove as fruitful. He always is at a disadvantage, because he refuses to put himself into harmony with the nature of things, and the plan of Christ, which bids him become an earnest and active Church member, as well as a Christian.-Congregationalist.