who worked for the trade made sometimes as much as fifteen shillings or a pound per day in going round from shop to shop writing these tickets, and was advised to pay particular attention to this branch of the business, in case of my not excelling as a salesman.

When not occupied in ticket-making and in duties connected with the counting-house, I gained some practical knowledge of the haberdashery branches of the trade, and was soon able to serve customers very creditably. I found, however, that my stammering often prevented me from expatiating as eloquently as could be desired on the qualities of more expensive articles, such as a shawl, or a silk dress, so that I was glad to make myself as proficient as possible in the branches of the business where my pen and pencil were brought into practice.

I was fortunate in gaining the good opinion of my employer, and still more happy in getting into the good books of his better-half, an agreeable lady in the meridian of life, with a numerous family, the younger members of which took a special liking to me. Being rather a handy fellow, my services were often called into requisition in various ways by this lady, from whom I received many little acknowledgments of my attempts to please.

The domestic arrangements of this establishment were most excellent. Everything was done to make the young persons in their employ comfortable and happy after the hours of business, and the food provided for us was of the best description. Family worship was regularly conducted by the head of the establishment, and the young men from the shop were invited, but not compelled, to attend these services.

I was so pleased with the cheerful disposition of my governor, and also by the consistent manner of conducting his business, that I determined to attend one of these services. It was the first thing of the kind I had ever seen, as nothing of this nature obtained in my father's family. I had always the impression that only methodistical people in

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A Christian Household.

troduced such practices into their week-day domestic arrangements, and I always had a great horror of, and thorough contempt for, anything bordering upon Methodism.

I found, however, that there was an attractiveness about the service that very much won upon me. The family, consisting of the heads of the household, their children, the servants, and porters, and about ten or a dozen of the young men from the shop, were regularly assembled after breakfast in the morning, and also in the evening as often as circumstances would permit. The governor read a suitable chapter from the bible, and afterwards offered an extempore prayer of about eight or ten minutes. There was nothing wearisome about the service, and I could not help remarking that the young men who attended these meetings for Divine worship were for the most part among the best assistants in the shop.

I was struck, not only by the natural and becoming manner in which my employer conducted these services, but also I could not fail to see that his business was conducted in such a way as to recommend the sacred subjects dilated upon in his prayers and praises. It requires no small amount of moral courage for an employer, who is a religious man, in these cutting and trimming times, to maintain a becoming consistency between services such as these that I advert to, and his daily dealings with his customers, and those who are in his employ.

I am happy, however, to be able to record that few indeed were the inconsistencies I observed in the profession and practice of this good man during the eighteen months I remained in his employment.

My employer remarked one day at dinner, a few Sundays after I entered his establishment, that there was a pew at the chapel that he attended quite free to any of the young men who might desire to make use of it.

I had never attended a Dissenting meeting-house in my life; but my curiosity was a little excited to see and

A Dissenting Chapel.

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hear what sort of a preacher he could be who had such a consistent and cheerful man for a hearer.

I made up my mind to go on the following Sunday, and judge for myself, both as to the preacher and the services; and I accordingly accompanied one of the young men from the shop, who I found was accustomed to attend this place of worship.

The chapel was situated in the New Road, and was a large oblong, plain brick building, destitute of any architectural pretensions, and capable of holding 1200 or 1400 people. It is one of the commodious chapels that were erected in populous districts of the metropolis by the late Thomas Wilson, of Highbury, a man who deserves honourable mention by every Congregational Dissenter, as one who laid out a large fortune to promote the interests of that denomination, and who devoted a long and useful life to benevolent and philanthropic measures to benefit his less favoured countrymen.

The interior of the chapel was of the plainest and most unadorned description. We were there early; the place was comfortably filled some minutes before the hour of service, by a remarkably well-dressed and intelligent-looking congregation. At the hour of Divine service, a tall, dark, majestic looking man, between thirty and forty years of age, walked rather hurriedly from the vestry, and ascended the pulpit; he was attired in a black flowing gown and clerical bands. The clerk, or precentor, occupied what a Churchman would denominate the readingdesk. A hymn, from Dr. Watts's collection, was given out by the precentor, and each verse was read by him successively as they were sung; a practice, I believe, generally discontinued now in Congregational churches. The hymn being finished, the minister arose, and read selections from the Scriptures, consisting of a Psalm, and a chapter from the Prophecies of Isaiah. This reading was remarkably good and impressive. This was followed by an extempore prayer of about twenty minutes, in language

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A Nonconformist Minister.

alike devout and simple, and with a solemnity that very much struck me. The prayer being ended, another hymn was sung, and at the close came the sermon.

I have the most vivid and distinct recollection of the whole scene, as it was entirely new to me, and differed so materially from the Church of England services, with which I had been familiar from my childhood. The text was taken from Isaiah vi. 1-4; and it was a sermon on the memorable vision of the Prophet in the Temple. I can recollect even now, at a distance of more than thirty years, the opening sentences of that discourse, and the marked attention of the great congregation made a deep and lasting impression upon me. After reading the text very deliberately, the preacher looked up from the Bible, and with rather low and chastened voice said, "In the year that King Uzziah died,' which, according to chronology, was the year in which Romulus, the founder of the Roman Empire, was born. In the year that King Uzziah died for kings must die. All flesh is grass, and the goodliness thereof is as the flower of grass.' The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, all the beauty, and all the wealth of the world, await alike the inevitable hour. The path of glory leads but to the grave.'

6

Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for wherein is he to be accounted of?' But God lives; He is the everlasting King; His throne endureth to all generations; His dominion does not pass away, and He revealed Himself in unwonted splendour and majesty to the mind of His Prophet when King Uzziah died."

The preacher then directed attention to two points from the passage selected. 1. The glory of God as manifested in Christ Jesus to the Prophet's mind: and 2. The manner in which the Seraphim witnessed the deed. The sermon was a full hour in its delivery, and was one of great beauty and power. The preacher had no notes before

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him, and I was astonished at his ready eloquence, as sentence after sentence came from his lips in the most natural and unaffected manner. The language was chaste and elegant, his elocution the best I had ever heard, even on the stage, and his gesture such as would have done honour to John Kemble in his best days.

I went away from that chapel with a very different opinion of Dissenters and their services to that which I had entertained all my life. I had always associated Dissent and Dissenters with ignorance and vulgarity, and imagined, as many other Churchmen do in the present day, that their religion was made up mainly of cant and hypocrisy. Here, however, was a scholar and a gentleman; a man endowed with the great natural talents and acquirements that make up an orator; and exhibiting moreover, as I was informed, in his daily life, the virtues that should ever characterize and distinguish the minister of Christ.

I gathered from my employer, on returning from the morning service, some few particulars relating to the preacher, and found that he had originally studied with a view of becoming a clergyman in the Established Church; but, upon more mature inquiry and deliberation, he saw that he could not honestly subscribe to the formularies and tests of that community, and therefore became a Nonconformist minister. He commenced his ministry at Dublin in 1814, and removed to London in 1817, and at the time referred to was in the zenith of his fame as a pastor of the flock of Christ, and a preacher of the everlasting Gospel.

I returned again to the services in the evening; and such was my admiration of the preacher, and the earnest reality there appeared to be in the mode of conducting Divine worship, that I soon began to look forward to the Sunday services as both an intellectual treat, as well as a becoming acknowledgment of the sacredness of the day.

The opportunities I have had for the last thirty years of making myself better acquainted with the ministers of our Congregational and Baptist Churches, have produced