Transcribed from the 1858 William Tweedie edition by David Price, email
[email protected] THE LONDON PULPIT. BY J. EWING RITCHIE, AUTHOR OF THE “NIGHT SIDE OF LONDON.” “Oh heavens! from the Christianity of Oliver Cromwell, wrestling in grim fight with Satan and his incarnate blackguardisms, hypocrisies, injustices, and legion of human and infernal angels, to that of eloquent Mr. Hesperus Fiddlestring, denouncing capital punishments, and inculcating the benevolences, on platforms, what a road have we travelled!”—CARLYLE’S LATTER-DAY PAMPHLETS. Second Edition. REVISED, CORRECTED, AND ENLARGED. LONDON: WILLIAM TWEEDIE, 337, STRAND. MDCCCLVIII. JOHN CHILDS AND SON, PRINTERS. p. i Dedication p. ii TO JOHN R. ROBINSON, ESQ. DEAR ROBINSON, In dedicating to you this edition of a Work, the contents of which originally appeared under your editorial sanction, I avail myself of one of the few pleasures of authorship. Of the defects of this little Volume none can be more sensible than myself: you will, however, receive it as a trifling acknowledgment on my part of the generous friendship you have ever exhibited for an occasional colleague and Yours faithfully, J. EWING RITCHIE. FINCHLEY COMMON, Nov. 7, 1857. THE p. 1 RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS OF LONDON. ‘Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto,’ said Terence, and the sentence has been a motto for man these many years. To the human what deep interest attaches! A splendid landscape soon palls unless it has its hero. We tire of the monotonous prairie till we learn that man, with his hopes and fears, has been there; and the barrenest country becomes dear to us if it come to us with the record of manly struggle and womanly love.