ces of Disraeli, how different would have been the
state of politics in this country. If Louis Philippe had shot Louis
Napoleon when he had the power to do so, the Orleanists might have been
the rulers of France. If old George III. had had brains as well as
self-esteem and a stubborn will, what untold horrors might have been
averted from England and Ireland. If Balthazar Gerard had not fired his
pistol at William the Silent, Belgium at this time would have been as
intensely Protestant as it is now intensely Catholic. If John Wesley had
perished in the fire at Epworth Parsonage, where would have been the
Methodist Revival of the last century? And if Wesley himself had not
broken from the little band who met in Fetter Lane, what sect in England
would have equalled in numbers or usefulness that of the Moravians? Now,
in this teeming London they have but one place of worship, and that but
very indifferently filled. It does not even present the usual appearance
of a place of worship, and thus attract notice; the stranger passes it
by. Yet it is a place of surpassing interest, one of the hallowed spots
of London, where sinners have wept, where souls have rejoiced, where the
power and presence of God have been marvellously displayed. Let us go
there; we pass along a passage till we come into a very old-fashioned
meeting-house. There we shall find plenty of room. There are two
hundred communicants, and at certain times they are all present, but they
are scattered far and wide, and in general the place has a very deserted
look. The benches--there are no pews--are most uncommonly hard to sit
on. There are galleries, and in one of them there is an organ. The
place is neat and clean. The service itself calls for no especial
notice. It is much like that of other denominations. The liturgy is
exclusively that of the Moravians. The preaching is such as you may hear
elsewhere. Attached to the place is a skeleton Sunday-school. There is
light about the place, but it is not very powerful. It suggests more
that of the setting than of the rising sun. I confess I see no reason
why this should be the case, why the Moravianism, so powerful in many
places, so blessed in missionary efforts, should be so powerless here.
Moravianism is older than Lutheranism. It has an apostolical descent
more genuine than that of the English or the Romish Church.
Pre-eminently it may claim to have followed the leadings of Providence.
Nowhere