and respectable audience on the first Sunday in Advent, the 30th of November. It was at first proposed to have only morning service, but as the numbers were much greater than our room could accommodate, and as there were many servants, I almost immediately determined to give both services; and both were regularly continued, and were remarkably well attended, throughout the winter. It was once proposed to make a direct application to the Pope for permission, but this was very properly checked; for the slightest reflection proved to us that such an application could not be successful, and would even force the government to stop our proceedings. Our service, however, was quite as publick and as well known to every individual in Rome, as any the most noted ceremony or service of their own; and we were well assured that the Pope and his ministers were not only disposed to wink at our proceedings, but that they were even gratified by the decorous and unostentatious manner in which we studied to conduct them. It was obvious from the first, that our object was, not to give offence, nor to make proselytes, but to furnish the means of religious worship to our own countrymen. No natives ever attended, even out of curiosity; our congregation consisted of English entirely, or British, with occasionally a few foreign Protestants, German and Swiss, who understood our language. I was wholly responsible for the performance of the service till after Easter, but many clergymen, certainly not less than twelve, arrived in the course of the winter, who offered their services, and whose services were thankfully accepted. All things considered, we had every reason to be satisfied with the liberality with which we were treated by the government and the people; and I feel the sincerest gratification when I reflect on the regularity and devout attention of our countrymen of all ranks and professions who were that winter in Rome. We had neither a commodious place, nor vestments, nor ceremony, nor musick, nor eloquence to attract; but I never saw a more regular, nor a more attentive audience; and it really seemed as if our simple forms, and spiritual worship, had more than their usual influence and attraction in that metropolis of papal pomp. The holy communion was devoutly administered on Christmasday to upwards of forty, and again on the Sunday following, to nearly a hundred. It was again administered on Good Friday to upwards of eighty; on Easter-day to about thirty; on the Sunday after to about forty, and privately to many more who were unable to sit in a crowded room. That I may omit nothing connected with my subject, I have to mention, that for two months at least of the same winter, our Church service was also performed, and the holy communion twice at least celebrated, in the lodgings of a nobleman, by his domestick chaplain, to a considerable congregation; while there was regular service also in the family of another nobleman, to which the friends only of the family were admitted. There were many young people and children in the congregation under my charge, which induced me to undertake a system of cate chising during Lent, which occupied the interval between the two services, and which was remarkably well attended, as well by the children, as by their parents and friends. By catechising, I do not mean simply asking the questions of our admirable form; I mean a system of familiar instruction founded on the catechism by way of lecture, and fixed in the minds of the children, by questions of my own proposing, and founded on the explanations familiarly furnished to them. I finished my course of catechising after the evening service on Easterday, (for I left Rome for Naples in Easter-week,) and on no part of my winter's duty do I reflect with more satisfaction, in the fervent hope that it was useful at the time, and will be long remembered by my young and interesting catechumens, from whom I parted with real regret. In every considerable assemblage of British subjects in a foreign country, those of the Episcopal communion, (which forms the establishment of by far the largest part of the British empire,) will gene⚫ rally be found greatly to predominate. This was the case at Rome, and therefore the worship of the Church of England was entitled to a preference, even if there had been, as there was not, any competi tion. There were many Scotch individuals, and some Scotch families in the list. They were also mostly Episcopalians. There were among them, however, some individuals, and at least one, (perhaps more,) very respectable family who were Presbyterians. But this occasioned no schism; they attended our service with the most perfect regularity, and even their young people attended the catechising, which of course was confined to the undisputed truths of our common faith, as they stand admirably defined in our Church catechism. I did not venture, (nor did the circumstances of the case warrant nor require it,) to enter publickly into controversial matter even with reference to the Church of Rome; though I did not fail to warn (in the most solemn and impressive manner) my young auditors, before I finally parted with them, of the dangers to which, in that respect, they might be exposed; nor to press on their attention the high claims of their native Church, and the sacred authority on which those claims We were well attended by persons of all professions and descriptions, by none more regularly than by officers (of whom there and army were many of all ranks) of the and I remarked particularly that all were provided with books, and were well acquainted with the use of them. I may be permitted to mention, that a young clergyman of the Church of Scotland was one of the original members of our congregation, and a contributor to its support, with whom I did not become acquainted, as his stay was comparatively short, and we never met in a small circle, nor found the means of introduction. rest. navy; The expense of our little establishment was defrayed by contribution, which was limited to a Roman crown, per head, or family. There were two contributions at that rate during the winter; the residue, after defraying rent and incidental expenses, being destined, together with the offertories, for the poor of Rome. The offertories at the com munion were liberal, and were employed, with every possible attention and delicacy, to alleviate the distress of numerous individuals, many of whom had seen better days. I left the duty of the Sunday after Easter, the 29th of March, 1818, in the hands of a most respectable clergyman who had frequently assisted me through the winter, who continued to do duty once a Sunday, for several months after, in his own lodgings, and was well attended, though the numbers by departure were much diminished. I assisted him on my return from Naples, on Trinity Sunday, and the Sunday after I may mention, that when I reached Naples, there was no clergyman there, nor had been for several weeks. But I had a most respectable congregation there also, (mostly composed of English who had passed the winter at Rome,) for six successive Sundays, in the house of the British consul, whose zeal and attention were beyond all praise. The communion was administered on Whit Sunday and the Sunday before, and the offertories given of course to the native poor of Naples. Except a few baptisms, I had no occasional duty either in Rome or Naples; but I must mention, that while I was at Naples, the clergyman who did duty at Rome was required to bury a young English servant. There is a piece of ground near St. Paul's gate, (the ancient Porta Ostia, close to the pyramid or tomb of Caius Cestus,) allotted for the burial of hereticks, in which the tombs of our countrymen greatly predominate. The clergyman did not for a moment hesitate to perform the duty required, but he had some latent fears of its safety, which were considerably increased when he found the ground (the funeral was by torch-light) covered with people, and heard them in loud and earnest conversation. When he advanced and began the service, however, there was an instant and profound silence through the whole crowd. All the male part of them immediately took off their hats, and they remained in perfect silence and apparent sympathy to the close of the service, when they dispersed in the most peaceable and orderly manner.-I think this anecdote, which I had from the clergyman himself, highly creditable to the people of Rome, who are, according to their notions, a religious people,-bigotted even; but with all their personal bigotry, I have found them much less disposed to interfere with foreigners than their Neapolitan neighbours; insomuch that I never was required to kneel, and never did kneel, at the elevation of the host, though I have been repeatedly present, and surrounded by Romans, who uniformly remained attentive to their own devotion, or their own superstition, without regarding me. Aware that similar liberty was not to be expected in Naples, I never placed myself in the same predicament; on the contrary, I always took an opposite course whenever I saw the procession of the host in the street. I cannot conclude this hasty and insignificant detail, without lamenting the residence of such crowds of our countrymen, whole families and children, in foreign countries. The evils are great in a political, moral, and fiscal point of view. Foreign travel has its advantages, certainly, were it limited in numbers and duration, and to the proper age and station as in time past; but, when whole families emigrate and reside abroad for years, the evil predominates beyond all comparison; our patriotism, and our morals, and our religion, must inevitably suffer in consequence. I have a better opinion of the Italians in general, and of the Romans in particular, than has been common in this country; but my opinion is comparative, as it should be. I judge them according to their condition, religious and political, and think them, on the whole, better than they have been generally represented ;-but with all which the utmost candour will suggest or can allow, I shudder when I think of the consequences which may (which perhaps must) result from the long and familiar intercourse of our people of condition, and in easy circumstances, of our young men, young women, and children, with Italian society, of which the notions, the habits, and the conversation, are little suited to the genius, the decorum, and the principles of our happier country. There is one obvious and essential evil in such foreign residence to all classes, particularly to the young. They leave their religion, all the instituted means of grace, and opportunities of publick worship, behind them; or if they find them in this place or in that, it is by mere accident, often irregularly, and always for short intervals. It has often appeared to me astonishing, that apparently well-meaning people, for no conceivable purpose of real utility, should banish themselves, for months and years, from all the nameless and interesting advantages of social religion, publick worship, and Divine ordinances, and go gazing from Sunday to Sunday, with idle and ignorant curiosity, at the pomps and shows of a church in the worship of which they can take no part. We are creatures of habit, and if we once lose, from whatever cause, the habits of our own system of religion, we become very apt to lose, or to think lightly of, the practice of religion altogether. I have known many worthy people, who, from long foreign residence, and from having no means of publick worship in their power, have lost the practice of all external religion, and who have rejected the blessing when it came within their reach with the most perfect apathy, as a matter of neither use nor interest to them. Respectable in conduct, so far as man is entitled to judge, they still remained; but their Christianity was without form, and differed in nothing but the name from pure deism. Some whose minds were more susceptible of religious emotion, have been seduced to popery, who, I am persuaded, never would have yielded in their own country to any system of seduction from that quarter. I found several Protestants at Rome, Germans and English, whose principles were extremely shaken, who would never have been in the slightest danger in their own country, nor even in a transient visit to Italy. On two several occasions I was called upon, in a large, respectable, and of course a select party, in order to discuss the scruples of some of these one a German lady in the vale of life, and of great respectability of condition and character. I had reason to believe that I was successful, and that my arguments and answers, (for po sitions were laid down as they had been furnished by priests and objections urged,) were felt at least for a time, for the parties attended our worship, and some of them communicated; but the only means certain of cure would have been to send them home to their own church and country. I did my utmost, and am satisfied that I did my duty, and that it was so felt at the time; but I am also persuaded, that when they were again left without the means of worship in their own way, and without the aid of books or of any of their own clergy, they would be again bewildered, and perhaps finally secured in what we must consider a most painful apostacy, excusable, we must hope, when it is acquired in infancy, and followed in perfect sincerity, but extremely dangerous, to say the least, when it is adopted in mature age. It was the extreme danger to which, in such circumstances, I think our youth exposed, which led me to take the trouble of catechising in Lent; and I often regretted, when I found it so well taken and so well attended, that I had not begun the course at an earlier period. It were well, however, if British parents would not systematically expose their children to such danger, as to render the aid of such casual instruction of any, importance. To the numer ous evils which agitate us at home, in these perilous days, the evils which may, and perhaps must in numerous instances result from the foreign residence of so many families, and of so many young persons of both sexes, is an addition, in numerous respects, of most formidable magnitude. 25 FOR THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE. EXTRACT FROM THE MESSIAH. Translated from the original German of Klopstock. And he read: From 'mong the spirits, that Jehovah's power Bear witness he is God: The seats of heaven And long, (for such my will,) dread chaos knew. GOSPEL ADVOCATE, VOL. III. |