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generally half empty, and the occupiers of pews keep the doors of their hearts, as well as of their seats, closed.[1]
At the present time, a "fitting place" is being sought in London for "services for the working classes." A result of the pew system is, then, that the churches are regarded as out of the question for the purpose of preaching the Gospel to the people. A spare music-hall is required! Is this to he borne? In the name of truth and justice, I ask, for what were the churches built? In the name of the people, I ask, shall we submit to have the churches kept shut throughout the week, during one half of the Lord's day, open only at rare hours to a select class, and meanwhile be looking for a "fitting place" in which to worship God? So monstrous an abuse cannot stand. Contemptible notions of personal dignity, unchristian notions of personal ease and convenience, considerations of carpets, cushions, and hassocks, cannot long be allowed thus to hinder the Church's work and the people's salvation; for though the pew system is "highly esteemed among men," it "is abomination in the sight of God."
We are in want of fit places in which to preach the Gospel to the working classes. The churches, as they are (we are all agreed) are not fit places. They ought to be fit places (I suppose we are all agreed in this also.) They can and must be made such, and we ought never to rest till we have made them such. The vicious arrangement of our churches, through the appropriation of seats, has deprived the people generally of the power, and in a still greater degree of the will, to frequent them. A flagrant wrong has thus been inflicted, especially upon the working classes. A greater wrong there could hardly be, for it hinders the salvation of Christians more than any other evil or abuse that ever
- ↑ The following sad statement, made by the Bishop of Lincoln, in Convocation, on February 10th, shews that the hardening effect of the Pew System on those who are supposed to benefit by it, is not the least of its manifold evils:—"In one church in my diocese, where there were morning and evening services, all the seats were appropriated. The incumbent was desirous of introducing an additional service, in order to accommodate a number of parishioners who could not obtain seats at other times. I told him I would support him, but the opposition from the seat-holder's was so great that he found if he persevered he would lose every sixpence of the subscriptions towards his charities, and he was obliged to abandon the plan."
