from the first in peace and harmony, were prevailed upon to repair the church, and to erect a gallery at the west end of it for the accommodation of his numerous hearers, to pull down the high wall that inclosed it, so as to give it light and air, and to make all the avenues to it wide and commodious; by which means it is become one of the best places of worship in London. Mr. Romaine, who never asked any favour for himself, but always acknowledged the smallest, solicited his friends that attended the church to present the united parishes with a token of their gratitude. This request was cheerfully complied with, and the sum collected towards defraying the expences of erecting the gallery, and other improvements amounted to five hundred pounds, which the parishes have handsomely acknowledged by an inscription over the west door. *

Whilst he promoted the improvement of the Lord's house, he laboured much to obtain decent behaviour in those who came there to worship. He too justly complained of that which with all his influence he was scarce able to remedy, the disgusting and irreverent custom of coming into church during the time of service-as if confession of sin-the praises of God in his own psalms-the reading of his will in his own word -and prayers founded upon the scriptures, and extracted from them, were a mere nothing: or as if we were to assemble ourselves together for no other purpose than just to hear a sermon. Whatever excuses may be made for such conduct upon a week day, none

* This Church was repaired and beautified Anno Domini 1774, at the expence of the united Parishes, and the generous contribution of the congregation.

The Rev. William Romaine, M. A. Rector

of St. Andrew by the Wardrobe

Charles Griffiths

Thomas Cook

of St. Ann's Blackfriars.

John Holton

John Davis

Church-wardens.

Love as Brethren.

can be made for it upon the Lord's day, the great business of which is his public worship, and of course our gathering together in places where he has chosen to put his name. If our place of residence is at a distance from our place of worship, we should act in this case as we do in every other, and consider that the further we have to go, the sooner we should set out. If we are to go to market, or on a journey, or on any worldly business or pleasure, we can rise, we can dress, we can set out in time, and think an apology necessary if we are not punctual: but, as to church, it seems a matter of perfect indifference, when we go, or whether we go there at all. But why are we more diligent in things which are temporal, than in those which are eternal? Why do we presume to insult the Creator, in a way in which we would not insult a fellow-creature? How can we expect a blessing from one part of the service, when we have despised and neglected the other; or indeed, how can we expect a blessing from any part, unless we have seriously and devoutly attended the

whole?

There is also another custom too prevalent in and about places of public worship, which was peculiarly offensive to Mr. Romaine, and which was often reproved by him in more ways than one. The custom alluded to is that of people's conversing together either in the church, or churchyard, in a vestry, or in a boardroom, as soon as the service is over. He not only spoke against such conversations from the pulpit, but frequently interrupted them, when he came out, by tapping the shoulders of those who were engaged in them; and once, if not oftener, by knocking their heads together, when he found them particularly close, and whispering in their ears, that they had forgot the "parable of the sower." He himself studiously avoided every thing of the kind, being always in church some time before service began, and retiring from it to his own house as soon as the service was over, without ever speaking a word, except to his curate, his clerk,

or parish officers, upon necessary business in the vestry. A woman, it is said, once saluted him, as he came down the pulpit stairs, by telling him, that "he had "been greater that night than ever." And he answered her by saying, that "the devil had told him so before "he left the pulpit." If Mr. Romaine uttered these words, he took them out of the mouth of the celebrated John Bunyan, who is supposed to have been their original author, and to have uttered them upon a similar occasion. The zeal of the good woman, which provoked this saying, seems to have been somewhat like that of another in the company of our Lord, who cried out to him," Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and "the paps which thou hast sucked." And the answer of the servants might have been given in the spirit of their Master, "Yea, rather blessed are they that hear "the word of God and keep it." * These certainly are the great ends for which we assemble together, and were they kept always in view, they would regulate our behaviour in the use of the means which lead to them.

Mr. Romaine was a great benefactor to his parishes in another respect, and that is, as a promoter of charity. There was seldom any occasion of distress on which he did not call upon his hearers to contribute to the relief of the sufferers; and the sum raised was generally proportionate to the motive urged, viz. the love of Christ constraining himself and those that heard him. The annual collections for the schools in the ward, and the poor of the parish, made in the church, at the weekly sacraments, which he instituted, and after the charity sermons, which he preached, amounted on an average to three hundred pounds a year.

On

* We cannot but admire the meekness and gentleness of Christ, as they were entirely free from that roughness and severity which often cleave to the expressions of the best Christians. He does not treat this woman, as though she was a messenger of Satan, sent either to flatter or to buffet him, but advises her to get more from his company than a mere transient impression, which might be soon effaced without producing its effects in her religious conduct.

his first coming to the living the pew-openers employed in the church were two in number; when he died, they were increased to eight, and each capable of getting a comfortable livelihood from what was given them by the congregation, without any assistance from the parish. When the dreadful fire happened in Blackfriars in the year 1793, by which a number of houses were consumed that had a poor family in each story, Mr. Romaine was an eye witness to the distressing scene. He called upon one of his parishioners at half past three in the morning during the time of the fire, and again at nine o'clock, anxious to know what could be done for the poor sufferers. He commissioned his friend to give them something for their immediate relief; and accordingly two guineas were given to each sufferer, to the amount of about ninety guineas in the whole. Mr. Romaine made himself responsible for this sum, and on the mornings of the Sunday and Tuesday following he pleaded from the pulpit for his poor parishioners, who had been burnt out of their houses, and lost their all. The sum raised upon this occasion, added to a donation of fifty pounds from his Royal Highness the Duke of York, amounted to upwards of three hundred pounds, which, together with a collection made by the inhabitants of Ludgate-hill, enabled Mr. Romaine to distribute to the poor sufferers from ten to eighteen pounds a piece. He was no less zealous for every good work which came in his way. When the clergy were called upon to collect in their respective parishes for the French emigrants, he was not a whit behind the chiefest of them in this business; for which he had the honour of being noticed in an anonymous pamphlet ; as if to relieve the distresses of a papist was to encourage the errors of popery. We may surely, and ought to separate the mistakes from the miseries of any man; not perhaps as causes and effects, but as to their respective influences upon our minds. We may be guarded against the one, without being hardened against the other.

66

We may remember how the papists persecuted us in times past, but we have protested against them to very little purpose, unless we have learned to "love our enemies, to bless them that curse us, and to pray for them who despitefully use us and persecute And I cannot but think, that the asylum afforded them in this country, in their present distress, is to be ranked among the many acts of benevolence which reflect infinite honour upon the English

us.

nation.

There are also many of the public charities which have lost a great friend and benefactor in Mr. Romaine. None will miss him more than the Royal Humane Society. From a conviction of the usefulness of this institution, he preached a voluntary sermon for them at Blackfriars, in the year 1777. He observed that not only the lives, but the souls of some of his parishioners had been saved by the means of it; that their miraculous recovery made them serious; that their seriousness brought them to church; that the Lord of the church met them there, and gave them the spirit of faith while they were hearing of his name. Mr. Romaine preached annually for this society for seventeen years, latterly at St. Dunstan's on the Sunday after his course of lectures was ended, and his sermon generally procured thirty pounds, besides two or three new annual subscrib

There is also another pious institution which has reason to regret in him the loss of a valuable friend; an institution known by the name of the Bible Society, for the purpose of distributing Bibles amongst his Majesty's forces, both sea and land. Much good has been done by it, and Mr. Romaine had it much at heart; he preached for it in his own and other churches

* These anecdotes were communicated by Dr. Hawes, register of the Humane Society, wishing them to be made public, and thinking very justly, that it reflects no small honour upon an institution which he has so much at heart, to have had its cause pleaded by so good a man as Mr. Romaine.