e I have been an inhabitant of Belgravia for many
years. I can bear witness to the despair with which formerly any benevolent person anxious to better the condition of the labouring classes in the neighbourhood soon gave up the task. Mr. Bennett came among us ; from that moment a gra- dual but wonderful change has taken place in their social and moral condi- tion throughout his parish. Many a family which was living in vice and misery has been reclaimed ; Christian truth and morality have taken a deep hold of the poor ; the church of St. Barnabas, up to this unhappy time, has been filled with lowly but glad worshipers."
But good men may err, and if they be enthusiasts may pursue an en- terprise with an obstinacy proportioned to its wildness. Our corre- spondent admits that Mr. Bennett may have been injudicious and mis- taken : that is the point of view from which our own strictures were mainly directed. It may be that "none of the complainants belonged to his congregation," but were always strangers : but this is less important on the broad view than in the confined view. Congregations were col- lected by the peculiar ministrations and personal qualities of the pastor; and they were unlikely, to object to anything he did, however excessive yet the fact remains, that such ministrations are offensive to the genius and untolerated by the spirit of the mass of the English people. The mischievous intruders who desecrated the worship at St Barnabas deserved severe punishment ; but the suppression of the Sunday scenes by one means or another, became necessary as a measure both of civil and ecclesiastical police.
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