Page:Distinguished Churchmen.djvu/212

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1 76 DISTINGUISHED CHURCHMEN

perchance, some social event or theatrical pro duction which has "caught on," as the papers say. Let the event of the week be what it may, it is bound to be illustrated with limelight views and given a turn calculated to impress the minds of old and young on the side of righteousness. And if you happen to drop in at St Mary-at- Hill, as the author has done, you will find these seemingly strange proceedings carried on with reverence and sincerity. The magic lantern is a permanent institution there, likewise the brass band and the monsterphone, and you will likely enough be struck with the sight of the Rector himself, dressed in the orthodox clerical garb of surplice and stole, supplying from the pulpit a trombone accompaniment to a popular hymn. No need of prayer or hymn-books at St Mary- at-Hill : prayers and hymns alike are thrown upon the screen, in print decipherable by the most restricted visions. But these unusual methods constitute merely the outside show the cheaply-decorated corridors, as it were, leading to the really substantial grandeur of the Word.

No book dealing with phases of Church work would be complete without a special chapter devoted to the unique service rendered by Mr Carlile. Clearly, his aim has been to traverse unbeaten tracks in the interests of the Church he holds dear. Throughout his ideas have been that there exists, not exactly outside the pale of

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