emnity, within. This ivy was the home of an
infinite number of little birds, which twittered and warbled, till
it might have been thought that they were emulous of the power of
praise possessed by the human creatures within, with such earnest,
long-drawn strains did this crowd of winged songsters rejoice and be
glad in their beautiful gift of life. The interior of the building
was plain and simple as plain and simple could be. When it was fitted
up, oak-timber was much cheaper than it is now, so the wood-work was
all of that description; but roughly hewed, for the early builders
had not much wealth to spare. The walls were whitewashed, and were
recipients of the shadows of the beauty without; on their "white
plains" the tracery of the ivy might be seen, now still, now stirred
by the sudden flight of some little bird. The congregation consisted
of here and there a farmer with his labourers, who came down from the
uplands beyond the town to worship where their fathers worshipped,
and who loved the place because they knew how much those fathers had
suffered for it, although they never troubled themselves with the
reason why they left the parish church; of a few shopkeepers, far
more thoughtful and reasoning, who were Dissenters from conviction,
unmixed with old ancestral association; and of one or two families of
still higher worldly station. With many poor, who were drawn there by
love for Mr Benson's character, and by a feeling that the faith which
made him what he was could not be far wrong, for the base of the
pyramid, and with Mr Bradshaw for its apex, the congregation stood
complete.

The country people came in sleeking down their hair, and treading
with earnest attempts at noiseless lightness of step over the floor
of the aisle; and by-and-by, when all were assembled, Mr Benson
followed, unmarshalled and unattended. When he had closed the
pulpit-door, and knelt in prayer for an instant or two, he gave out
a psalm from the dear old Scottish paraphrase, with its primitive
inversion of the simple perfect Bible words; and a kind of precentor
stood up, and, having sounded the note on a pitch-pipe, sang a couple
of lines by way of indicating the tune; then all the congregation
stood up, and sang aloud, Mr Bradshaw's great bass voice being half
a note in advance of the others, in accordance with his place of
precedence as principal member of the congregation. His powerful
voice was like an organ very badly played, and ver