Page:The Jubilee, or what I heard and saw in London.djvu/16

10 no respect diminished the manly vigour and energy which distinguished their earlier years. Of this we had full proof in the services at St. James's, Piccadilly, and at St. Paul's Cathedral.

St. James's is not the most interesting of churches to the lovers of Christian architecture. Yet it contained a goodly congregation at eight in the evening, when Divine Servce was celebrated, and a sermon preached by Dr. De Lancey, Bishop of Western New York. The discourse was eminently clear and practical, and was founded upon the promise of God, that "from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof, his name shall be great among the gentiles." Bishop De Lancey has been signally blessed in his episcopate, and has seen the Church committed to his charge rapidly increasing in numbers and in strength. Generally speaking, about one-half of the persons confirmed by him are converts from various sectarian denominations. Dissent of every kind has had the utmost freedom of expansion in Western New York; fanaticism has prevailed in its most exaggerated forms; and now, when folly and extravagance have done their worst, the Church has stepped in to rescue and to save.

The Jubilee is over. The 150th year of the existence of the Gospel Propagation Society has passed away. But as the 15th of June was the termination of the 150th year, so the 16th is the beginning of the 151st. Let us go then to St. Paul's, to attend the 151st anniversary of our venerable Society.

There stands the Cathedral, vast in its outlines, black and dismal in its colour, yet classically graceful in its proportions. It is now half-past two o'clock, and already a crowd is collected at the northern door-