Dickens, Charles – The Uncommercial Traveller

particularly edifying. I thought their tone extremely selfish, and

I thought they had a spiritual vanity in them which was of the

before-mentioned refractory pauper’s family.

All slangs and twangs are objectionable everywhere, but the slang

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and twang of the conventicle – as bad in its way as that of the

House of Commons, and nothing worse can be said of it – should be

studiously avoided under such circumstances as I describe. The

avoidance was not complete on this occasion. Nor was it quite

agreeable to see the preacher addressing his pet ‘points’ to his

backers on the stage, as if appealing to those disciples to show

him up, and testify to the multitude that each of those points was

a clincher.

But, in respect of the large Christianity of his general tone; of

his renunciation of all priestly authority; of his earnest and

reiterated assurance to the people that the commonest among them

could work out their own salvation if they would, by simply,

lovingly, and dutifully following Our Saviour, and that they needed

the mediation of no erring man; in these particulars, this

gentleman deserved all praise. Nothing could be better than the

spirit, or the plain emphatic words of his discourse in these

respects. And it was a most significant and encouraging

circumstance that whenever he struck that chord, or whenever he

described anything which Christ himself had done, the array of

faces before him was very much more earnest, and very much more

expressive of emotion, than at any other time.

And now, I am brought to the fact, that the lowest part of the

audience of the previous night, WAS NOT THERE. There is no doubt

about it. There was no such thing in that building, that Sunday

evening. I have been told since, that the lowest part of the

audience of the Victoria Theatre has been attracted to its Sunday

services. I have been very glad to hear it, but on this occasion

of which I write, the lowest part of the usual audience of the

Britannia Theatre, decidedly and unquestionably stayed away. When

I first took my seat and looked at the house, my surprise at the

change in its occupants was as great as my disappointment. To the

most respectable class of the previous evening, was added a great

number of respectable strangers attracted by curiosity, and drafts

from the regular congregations of various chapels. It was

impossible to fail in identifying the character of these last, and

they were very numerous. I came out in a strong, slow tide of them

setting from the boxes. Indeed, while the discourse was in

progress, the respectable character of the auditory was so manifest

in their appearance, that when the minister addressed a

supposititious ‘outcast,’ one really felt a little impatient of it,

as a figure of speech not justified by anything the eye could

discover.

The time appointed for the conclusion of the proceedings was eight

o’clock. The address having lasted until full that time, and it

being the custom to conclude with a hymn, the preacher intimated in

a few sensible words that the clock had struck the hour, and that

those who desired to go before the hymn was sung, could go now,

without giving offence. No one stirred. The hymn was then sung,

in good time and tune and unison, and its effect was very striking.

A comprehensive benevolent prayer dismissed the throng, and in

seven or eight minutes there was nothing left in the Theatre but a

light cloud of dust.

That these Sunday meetings in Theatres are good things, I do not

doubt. Nor do I doubt that they will work lower and lower down in

the social scale, if those who preside over them will be very

careful on two heads: firstly, not to disparage the places in

which they speak, or the intelligence of their hearers; secondly,

not to set themselves in antagonism to the natural inborn desire of

the mass of mankind to recreate themselves and to be amused.

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Dickens, Charles – The Uncommercial Traveller

There is a third head, taking precedence of all others, to which my

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