Page:Preaching the Gospel to the working classes impossible under the pew system.djvu/7

5

In these two passages the evil to be remedied is well described, and its effect truly stated. And in addition to the value of the testimony thus given, they show that the friends of Exeter Hall services admit a deep-seated and general evil, which they altogether evade; and instead of attempting a real remedy, they merely urge a local, superficial, and wretchedly inadequate substitute.

Lord Shaftesbury,^[1] in the House of Lords, on December 8th, said:—

I consider it a great defect in our Churches—a defect which has not grown up of late years; on the contrary, we are now learning to avoid it—that the working classes, when they attend the services of the Establishment, generally find themselves pewed up to their very eyes, shut out from the places where they can hear and be well accommodated, and not placed on a footing of equality with the rest of the congregation. You find many nooks and corners reserved for the working classes; you have free seats set apart for them; but they will not occupy those places: they think they are despised and treated as beings of a secondary order. Unless, therefore, you show them proper respect, and in the House of God admit that there at least there is equality, depend upon it the vast proportion of the labouring population in London will never be brought to attend the worship of the Establishment.

Would there was on the part of those who desire to evangelise the working classes, as clear and full purpose to eradicate the evil which they admit, as there is perception of its reality and extent. Is nothing to be done to get rid of this monstrous evil? Can it be that while so many on all sides deplore the pew system, and reprobate the darkness and wickedness which are its desolating fruits, none will rise and act with faith and determination, which in such a cause are invincible?

The following valuable letter is from the pen of Dr. Stanley, the late Bishop of Norwich:—

Palace, Norwich, Dec. 16, 1842.

Dear Sir,—Agreeing with you, as I entirely do, upon the injustice and evil tendency of pews, by which the benefits of our Church services are, comparatively speaking, confined to the higher and wealthier classes, to the exclusion of the poor", I sincerely hope your appeal to the inhabitants of Ipswich may be successful, and that they may be amongst the first to express, as a collective body, their disappro-

1. The Committee are glad to be able to state, that since the above was penned. Lord Shaftesbury has written to one of the Secretaries as follows:—" This Pew Question, now that it has been raised, must not be allowed to drop. I shall be happy to make an alliance with you for this cause."