ALL SAINTS, NOTTING-HILL, once looked desolate and forsaken. It was like
a church in a desert, and for a long time remained so; but now the houses
and pleasant squares have grown up around it, and we can say it is
situated in Colville-gardens. It is early English in style, built of
stone in regular course, and covered with slate. At a distance it is
cathedral-like in miniature, and it is not too much to say so, for upon a
closer inspection the beautiful detail of all its parts quite satisfies
the mind of the artist, and he leaves it without a feeling of
disappointment. The roofs are peculiar in the rise of their ridges at
the gables. This gives a somewhat broken look to them. The tower is
very handsome, but unfinished. It requires the lantern to be completed,
and marble shafts are required at the belfry windows. The church has
three entrances—one in the tower to the west, by a handsome south porch,
and by a north door. Slightly cruciform in plan, without nave aisles,
transepts, chancel, and aisles, the nave arcade is peculiarly good,
clustered marble shafts, and well-designed caps and bases, with full
moulding to the arches. The clerestory is excellent in detail, and the
ring-post and ribbed roof is a change from the usual style of church
roof. The aisle corridors, too, are treated as a light arcade with
clustered marble columns. The church is light, and the windows are
filled with tinted and figured glass, also some good stained glass in the
aisles. The pulpit and font are of alabaster; the pewing is light and of
good design; the flooring is tiled. The organ in south transept is
raised in a gallery of its own. The eastern wall of the Sacrarium is
decorated with fresco, rather floridly painted—the angel saluting Mary
and the birth of Christ. These frescoes have been universally
recommended by art judges.
All Saints was consecrated in 1851, and represented an outlay of
20,000_l._ The tower alone cost 10,000_l._—a very large sum, when we
consider the incomplete character of the object on which it was spent.
One chief thing about it worth notice is its bell; which tolls for
church, and which has a deep and rich tone, reminding the ear, more than
any other in the vicinity, of a cathedral “Tom.” The church is furnished
with a very fine organ, by Messrs. Gray and Davidson, and cost 1,500_l._
It has forty stops, including the _vox humana_, and is, at present, under
the management of Mr. Walker, a pupil of Dr. Steggall. There is sitting
accommodation for between 1,100 and 1,200, 300 sittings being free, and
the remainder letting at from one to two guineas per annum. The
congregation is of a highly respectable class, and apparently matured and
settled. The clergy consisting of the Rev. John Light, M.A., and three
curates, the Revs. Messrs. Bathurst Coults, and Griffiths, are supported
entirely from pew-rents, and a weekly offertory, which produces between
500_l._ and 600_l._ a-year, meets all other expenses. With regard to the
service at All Saints it is moderately High Church; in every part of it
there is an imitation of cathedral effects. There is a good choir, with
surplices of course. Twelve of the boys have a free literary and musical
education under one of the curates in what is termed the Choir School,
the efficiency of the choir being thus continuously provided for. The
singing is of a superior order—lively and spirited—and sufficiently wide
of the Gregorian monotone. The _Te Deum_ and _Jubilate Deo_ are sung as
anthems with good effect. The Prayers and Psalms are intoned, and the
responses sung by the choir and congregation. And in excess of what is
sometimes witnessed in High churches, the General Confession was intoned
by the priest, and responded by the choir and people in song; and the
Commandments were intoned by the Vicar himself. It may be observed that
the assistant curate knelt with his back to the congregation, whilst the
Vicar intoned the Commandments. At the name of Jesus in every place the
minister and people bow. A more striking illustration of the
inconvenience of this carried to excess could not be witnessed than in
the singing of one of the hymns. It was Hymn 314 in the Appendix to
“Hymns Ancient and Modern,” “When morning gilds the sky,” &c. There are
eight verses of six short lines each, and in every third line the sacred
name occurs—that is sixteen times in the course of the hymn. And the
hymn being quickly sung, the head was kept in almost constant motion.
The Nicene Creed was also sung. Then followed the sermon. The Vicar,
ascending the pulpit and facing the congregation, whilst yet standing,
pronounces, “To God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost;” and at once gives
out his text. It was a brief address of fifteen minutes, delivered
without book or note. High Churchism pretty much sets on one side the
old-established Gospel and Apostolic institution of “preaching the Word.”
In the present instance, here was a minister of very considerable natural
and acquired ability, which all who know him must allow places him far
above mediocrity; there was a magnificent text of Scripture to discourse
upon, “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for
the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.” (3 Phil. xx. 1.) It would have been
refreshing had there been time for this Scripture to have received a more
adequate illustration from the lips of Mr. Light. But there are two full
services every day, four on every Sunday and on festivals. Two
administrations of the Holy Communion on Song Sunday and Festival; three
sermons every Sunday, the brevity of which is justified at All Saints
upon the principle, “That as God’s house is a house of prayer, and not
merely a house of preaching, the service should be put before sermons.”
But may not this notion be carried too far? What is the relation between
_preaching the Gospel_ and a proper devout performance of general
Christian service, implied in true conversion and progress in spiritual
life? We are not advocates for long sermons, but it appears to us to
abbreviate them as some are doing is calculated to impair or defeat the
higher spiritual objects of public worship.