what practices?"

"Why, sir, when they enter a village they begin to sing hymns, and they
go on singing until they collect a number of people on the village green,
or in some neighbouring field, and then they preach."

"Well, whether that may be prudent or expedient or not depends upon
circumstances, but as yet I see no criminality."

"But you must admit, Mr. Hall, it is very irregular."

"And suppose I do admit that, what follows? Was not our Lord rebuking
the Scribes and Pharisees and driving the buyers and sellers out of the
temple very irregular? Was not almost all that he did in his public
ministry very irregular? Was not the course of the Apostles, and of
Stephen, and of many of the Evangelists, very irregular? Were not the
proceedings of Calvin, Luther, and their fellow workers in the
Reformation very irregular?--a complete and shocking innovation upon all
the queer out-doings of the Papists? And were not the whole lives of
Whitefield and Wesley very irregular lives, as you view such things? Yet
how infinitely is the world indebted to all of these? No, sir, there
must be something widely different from mere irregularity before I
condemn."

IRREGULAR AGENCIES.

Between Churchmen and Dissenters there are bodies claiming and often
receiving the support of both. The number of buildings used in London
every Sunday evening for theatre services now amounts to eleven, eight of
the eleven being engaged by a united committee, of which the Earl of
Shaftesbury is the chairman,--viz., Astley's, Standard, Pavilion, Royal
Amphitheatre, Sadler's Wells, Britannia, and the Metropolitan and Oxford
Music Halls. The other buildings are St. James's Hall and the Effingham
and Victoria theatres. One result of this state of things is rather
doubtful. Of the perniciousness of some of these places there can be no
doubt. It may be that some of them would have been closed ere this had
not the money received from the Sunday preaching made up for the losses
of the week. In one year in these places 122 services were held,
attended by 190,000 persons.

The London City Mission employs 361 agents. During the last year the
number of visits made by them to the houses of the poor amounted to
1,987,259. The number of visits which they made to sick and dying
amounted to 255,102. They gave away 6000 copies of the Bible; they
circulated 2,677,901 tracts; they held more than 36,000 Bible classes and
religious services indoors