Page:Distinguished Churchmen.djvu/211

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THE REV. WILSON CARLILE 175

was still the possessor of a broad mind, as seen by his attendance at the Moody and Sankey services at Exeter Hall in 1873, an< ^ n ^ s assist ance, on the invitation of Mr Sankey, in organis ing the choir for those and similar meetings. But he frankly confesses that it was Professor Drummond who spurred him on to preaching.

Eventually the time came when Mr Carlile turned from his commercial calling, and under Dr Boultbee underwent a course of theological training at the London College of Divinity. Holding meetings in London beyond the Thames i.e., in Southwark he began to adopt the unconven tional methods for drawing and interesting con gregations which have rendered him conspicuous among preachers. In your Saturday morning s paper you naturally turn to the column con taining the list of "to-morrow s services and preachers in London," and you just as naturally look well down the column to see what the Rev. Wilson Carlile has in store for the people about the vicinity of London Bridge at St Mary- at-Hill the church which, located over Billings gate Fish Market, diffuses a sweeter influence than is usually attributed to that unsavoury quarter. The announcement is sure to be of something sensational, of something precisely up- to-date. Maybe the sermon will deal with some phase in the South African War, a colliery disaster, the assassination of some monarch, or,

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