In a very unaristocratic neighbourhood--in no more fashionable a locality
than that of Devonshire Square, Bishopsgate Street--preaches the Rev. J.
Howard Hinton, till Mr. Brock came to London the acknowledged great man
of the Baptist denomination.
Nor was this title undeserved. If the possession of a powerful
mind--subtle, analytic, acute--a mind fertile in the destruction of
fallacies, and in the reception and exposition of great truths, gives its
possessor any weight at all, Mr. Hinton must, in any rank of life, have
occupied no mean place. Still more may be said in his favour, especially
in his character of a Christian minister--that his language is
forcible--that his own feelings are strong--that in season and out of
season it is evidently his aim to expound and declare, to the utmost of
his ability, Christian truth.
Yet Mr. Hinton has a very small congregation. I should think Devonshire
Square Chapel cannot contain more than five hundred hearers at the very
outside--a very small proportion, it must be admitted, of the intelligent
frequenters of public worship in London.
The real reason of this scant attendance, I suppose, is that Mr. Hinton
has no clap-trap about him--that he has none of the fascinating airs of
the popular Evangelical divine--that he has long past that time of life
when young ladies take an interest in their darling minister--and that,
if you wish to get any good from the preacher, you must not merely listen
to him, but must use your own intellectual powers as well--an exertion
far from common amongst the church and chapel goers of London. Six days
in the week those who have brains are working them in this crowded city,
and the seventh they wish to be a day of rest. They take the Sabbath as
a pleasant opiate--as a kind of spiritual Godfrey's Cordial for the
soul--that they may go back to the world with renewed energy and power.
To such Mr. Hinton does not preach: with such he is no favourite. No
singer of sweet songs--no player upon pleasant instruments is he. Tall,
sickly with the work and study of a life, grey-haired, inelegant as all
book-worms and men of thought--with the exception of Sir Bulwer
Lytton--are, with a voice by no means melodious, but tremulous with
emotion as it is played upon by the soul within: such is Howard Hinton.
If you stay to listen--if you have sense enough to see the heart in that
ungainly frame and the intellect in that capacious brain--you will hear a
sermon that will repay you well. From whatever subject he is preaching
on Mr. Hinton always manages to extract something new; you are really
instructed by his sermons; your views become clearer and more enlarged;
you understand better the Christian scheme. Mr. Hinton is more than what
I have here implied. He is something more than a great reasoner or acute
divine. He has a heart, and he speaks out of it to you. He excites your
emotions as well as convinces your understanding. There is flame as well
as light in that pulpit--flame, perhaps, all the more glowing that you
did not expect to find it there. On all subjects Mr. Hinton is an
independent, an original, and a fearless preacher. On some he is
peculiar--on most he is far ahead of the denomination to which he
belongs. This is, especially, the case with regard to the strict
observance of the Sabbath. Mr. Hinton believes that it was made for man,
not man for it--a fact of which the denominations which pride themselves
on being Evangelical seem to have become utterly oblivious. Mr. Hinton
sees in Christianity a principle at variance with the observance of set
times. He sees in man's nature abundant reason why the man who does not
profess to be religious should not be chained down to a form. He sees
the man of genuine religion will so shape his life that every day shall
be a Sabbath, and be religiously observed; and that, if he be not
religious, it is worse than mockery to ask him religiously to observe a
day. It is to the credit of Mr. Hinton that he has ably and faithfully
preached this doctrine--a doctrine which, if it be much longer denied by
the clergy of this country, threatens to be attended with most disastrous
results. It is dangerous to establish an institution which the Author of
Christianity never made; and if ministers choose to say that Christianity
is inconsistent with fresh air--inconsistent with the preservation of
physical life--inconsistent with the laws the God of nature has ordained,
the certainty is that the lower classes in 'populous cities pent,' who
toil from morning till night six days in the week, will do as they now
practically do--reject Christianity altogether.
I have said Mr. Hinton's theology is original. A short sketch of it will
soon make this clear. Thus, while he holds the doctrine of human
depravity, he contends that 'No man is subject to the wrath of God, in
any sense or degree, because of Adam's sin, but every man stands as free
from the penal influences of his first parent's crime as though Adam had
never existed, or as though he himself were the first of mankind.'
Calvinism Mr. Hinton _in toto_ explodes. He says: 'Without being moved
thereto by the Spirit of God, and without any other influence than the
blessing which God always gives to the use of means, you are competent to
alter your mind towards God by obeying the dictates of your own
conscience, and employing the faculties of your own being. Think on your
ways, and you will turn your feet to God's testimonies. This is what God
requires you to do in order to obtain deliverance from His wrath; and,
except you do it without regard to any communication of His Spirit, he
leaves you to perish.' At times Mr. Hinton seems to contradict himself.
But, after all, is not the theme one on which the human intellect can
never be perfectly consistent and clear?
At one time Mr. Hinton was much in public life. In the Anti-Slavery
agitation he took a conspicuous part. He was also connected with the
Anti-State-Church Association, and is still a great advocate of voluntary
education. Within the last few months several able letters have
appeared, from his pen, on this subject, in the 'Daily News.' But on the
platform he is not often heard, as was his wont. Mr. Hinton was settled,
I believe, originally, at Reading, where he won a high reputation--I am
told the Rev. Mr. Milman, the poet, who resided in Reading at the time,
always spoke of Mr. Hinton as by far 'the most original-minded man among
us'--and came to London when Dr. Price resigned, on account of ill
health, the pastorate of the church in Devonshire Square. Mr. Hinton
then became his successor.
His publications are various. The following list will show his industry
at least: 'Athanasia,' in four books; 'On Immortality in 1849;' 'Letters
written during a Tour in Germany in 1851;' 'Memoirs of William Knibb, the
celebrated Missionary in Jamaica;' 'A History of the United States of
North America;' 'Theology, or an Attempt towards a Consistent View of the
Whole Counsel of God;' 'The Work of the Holy Spirit in Conversion
Considered;' 'Elements of Natural History; or, an Introduction to
Systematic Zoology, chiefly according to the Classification of Linnaeus.'
Besides, Mr. Hinton has written pamphlets in favour of Voluntaryism in
religion and education, and published sermons innumerable. In the pulpit
or the press, his labours are most unremitting. He may be denied the
possession of great talent, but all must admit his power of persevering
toil.
The only drawback in connection with Mr. Hinton, I am told, is that his
temper is rather uncontrollable--that he is rather more rugged than need
be: indeed you will not attend long at Devonshire Square before you find
this to be the case. It is a pity it should be so. A man should have
more command over himself. Young preachers may be put out by a cough, or
any other sign of indifference; but old practised hands should have long
outgrown that.