Dr. Close, who has been called "the Pope of Cheltenham,"
is dead. He was made Dean of Carlisle by Lord Palmerston, and his death reminds us forcibly how completely extinct is the old Exeter - Hall party, of 'which he was one of the great mouthpieces. No modern Premier, not even Lord Beaconsfield, in riding the "Protestant horse" as Bishop Wilberforce has portrayed him, would ever think of making a Dean of such a preacher as Dr. Close. Indeed, the type has almost ceased to exist. Modern Evangelicalism still prefers " en- tertainments " to theatres, and still regards smoking as vicious, though snuff-taking is only unwise. But modern Evangelical- ism would hardly find Dr. Close acceptable, or, at all events, so acceptable that even Lord Shaftesbury would intercede with a modern Prime Minister for his promotion. We suppose the truth to be that a brisk intellectual air is so thoroughly im- pregnated in all forms of modern Christianity, that what Dean Close found popular in Cheltenham thirty years ago is now hardly tolerated even by the audiences of street-preachers. It is not necessary even now for popular preachers to be reasoners, but it is necessary that they should not parade their contempt for reason.
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