onalists, and immediately Mr. Martin filled it.
Where there had been a few wretched hovels there rose up a temple crowded
with worshippers. Every part was full. The preacher was young; his
style was exceedingly simple; but he had the calm self-possession of a
man with a mission to men's souls, and he had a clear voice, and a manner
grave and, at times, pathetic or severe. It was seldom that men had
seen, on such young shoulders, so old a head; and the Dissenting world
rushed to hear the boyish preacher who seemed miraculously endued with
the wisdom and gravity of age, and whose popularity even seemed to have
left him simple and unaffected, in spite of it all. In time, a new
chapel was erected in Westminster, not far from the residence of royalty;
and of that chapel Mr. Martin became the minister. There he yet remains,
and there his popularity is as great as ever. You are lucky if you get a
seat, the chapel, which has recently been enlarged, being always full.

Mr. Martin's forte is seriousness. He appears always solemn and devout.
In the man himself you see no sign of great intellectual power. Dressed
in sober black, close buttoned to the chin, you see a young man, with a
pale heavy face, worn down by work. You may listen a long time before
fire flashes from those eyes and lips, or before that brain thinks out of
the commonest style of pulpit thought. It is really remarkable with how
little instrumentality Mr. Martin produces so great an effect. He looks
perfectly unimpressible--as if the world's vanities never could charm
him--as if he passed his life in some hermit's dismal cell, and not in
the city's passionate and restless crowd. You would fancy that he was
the inhabitant of an altogether different sphere, that he never laughed
or smiled or read 'Punch;' and this appearance, I take it, is some help
to his pulpit success. Charles Fox said it was impossible for any one to
be as wise as Lord Thurlow looked. I would not go so far as to say that
no man can be as devout as Mr. Martin looks, but certainly his appearance
must be in his favour with the large class who attend public worship,
although his nasal twang is not very agreeable, and his face itself is
more indicative of the priest of narrow thought and of ascetic habits,
than of the man with glowing sympathies and generous life.

In the pulpit all this tells. Wait awhile, if you are sceptical, and you
will soon be convinced of the fact. The mass aroun