Littell's Living Age/Volume 129/Issue 1663/Miscellany
British Marbles. — Why our native marbles should so long have been neglected by architects is one of the mysteries of fashion. They were known — that of Ipplepen, in South Devon, indeed, was prized — more than two hundred and fifty years ago, but in most cases they were till the other day scarcely used at all for building-purposes. The shelly limestone of Purbeck (far inferior as "marble" to many of the Devonshire kinds) is almost the only exception. It was, we all know, much valued by the mediæval church-builders. The black marble of Bakewell has always found a market. Alabaster, too, which occurs in the new red sandstone, had its day; Burton-on-Trent was famous for it, and the taste for "confectionery work" in monuments kept alive the demand for it all through the Stuart period. But, in general, British marbles have been chiefly worked into knickknacks for tourists, who, in Derbyshire, like to have a letter-weight of "duke's red," or an inkstand inlaid with "all sorts," and who in Devonshire must, of course, carry off a polished fragment of the breakwater. Till lately the ambition of our marble-workers hardly soared above chimney-pieces. Here and there may be found a memorial church into which nothing but English marble enters; but, on the other hand, you may readily find a reredos, just put up in the midst of a marble-district, of which the boast will be that "every bit of it came from abroad." Those who have seen the pillars in the Home and Colonial Offices, will never again doubt that Devonshire marble is quite worthy to stand beside that of Sienna. Gilpin said so a century ago in his "Picturesque Tour;" he even preferred the Devonshire stone; he thought there was less harshness of tone in it than in the foreign, while yet the tints were fully as rich in the former as in the latter. Limestone of almost every colour, hard enough to take a good polish, is to be found round Plymouth. Besides the well-known grey madrepores, there are in the quarries of Cattedown, Radford, Billacombe, Pomphlett, etc., rose-red, fine black veined with white, olive green, brilliant yellow, etc. Samples of many of these may be seen in the walls of the Plymouth houses, and in the paving-stones of the roads. Unpolished, they of course want a shower to bring out their various tints; but, as it generally rains at Plymouth, the visitor will seldom be disappointed.
Punctuality at Church. — If the worshippers be not as punctual as the minister — if there be steps heard in the aisle from the earliest whisper of the organ to the announcement of the text, and the sound of opening doors keeps time with the footfall of every new addition to the audience — there is disturbance, says the New York Churchman, of the quiet not only of the minister, but of every devout breast that is turned toward him. All are conscious of the interruption; and one of the number, who has most need to be calm and collected, must eminently suffer. Every new comer must affect, to some extent, his concentration of mind. In his efforts for the right discharge of his sacred duties, every footstep cannot but disturb his attention. The effect will be different in proportion to temperament; one will be affected more than another; but to all it must be more or less a disturbance. It may be thought to be enough to be in time for the chief part of the service, and particularly for the sermon; but if, on the part of the pew, we make bold to claim for prayer and praise an importance not second to that of the discourse, the pulpit will not gainsay the assertion. It will concur in the argument that supplication and psalmody, chapter and chant, heighten the value and deepen the emphasis of the word of exhortation. They promote that receptive frame and attitude of mind which the preacher seeks to possess, in the pew. The service which he conducts does not consist of unconnected parts; it is a compacted unity. From the first syllable to the last what passes is complete. Every word of morning and evening service has its meaning and intention, and we should deny ourselves no portion of either. We should study the harmony of the whole, and make it quite a common enjoyment. It is a lyric piece, whose music should flow unbroken to the end, and when the last word of the benediction has fallen with its sweet influence on our ears, let us rest for a moment in hallowed silence, that the thoughts and feelings awakened and kindled within us may sink deep into our hearts, and remain with us through the whole. We should neither be slow to come nor in haste to go.
Punctuality at Church. — On this subject the Monthly Harbinger offers the following pungent remarks: — Impressed with the fact that there is no book or treatise in the known world which sets forth the advantages of late attendance on worship in the house of God, or which at all adequately defends the practice, and feeling that it would be an ineffable solace to thousands of professing Christians if this habit could be shown to be right, the shade of Thomas Didymus (who, being late, was absent when our Lord appeared to the other disciples) offers a prize of ten thousand shekels to the writer of the best essay on the subject, provided that he shall prove to the satisfaction of the world, the flesh, and the devil, who volunteer to be the adjudicators, the following points: — "That the habit of late attendance is perfectly scriptural; that God has granted, in all ages, peculiar blessings to those who keep him waiting for praise; that eminent saints have invariably chuckled over curtailed hours of worship. Especially should attention be called to the calm Sabbatic spirit which he must possess who hurries away from his own door, and, in a hurry, flings himself into the house of God; to the thankfulness which he must feel as he knows that he is disturbing the devotions of others, and depressing and weakening the energies of the minister whom He has chosen to be over him in the Lord; also the happy effects which his examples produce on the children whom God has given him, and on his worldly neighbours: also should it be shown that there is a most marked and delightful contrast in the punctual attendance which he demands from his own servants, and the listless, loitering, lazy manner in which he keeps his engagements with the great, God. Moreover, as some ladies have copied the example of the sterner sex, it will be well if convincing arguments can be invented to show that the time spent on a Sabbath morning in the arrangement of a lock of hair, the pose of a hat or bonnet, or the stretching of a new pair of gloves, is better employed than in arraying the soul for eternity."