Weigh-House
Chapel, where ever since he has remained. His income from that source
must be very respectable, as the Weigh-House Chapel congregation is
pretty well to do in the world, and can afford to pay its pastor
handsomely. As an author, Mr. Binney has gained extensive popularity,
although he has not done much in that respect; and his first work, the
'Life of the Rev. S. Morrell,' a friend and fellow-student of his own,
was a most extraordinary performance--just the thing a man like Binney
would write when young. It has, however, long been out of print. His
principal work is 'Discourses on the Practical Power of Faith.' His
sermons have been his most frequent publications, and his Lecture on Sir
F. Buxton--a lecture delivered to young men, with whom Mr. Binney is
always popular--has been reprinted on both sides of the Atlantic, as I
believe also has been his last published work, 'How to Make the Best of
Both Worlds.' I believe, also, Mr. Binney has written some poetry. I
recollect a few powerful lines, with his name to them, commencing with--

'Eternal light--eternal light,
How pure that soul must be,
That, placed within thy searching sight,
It shrinks not--but with calm delight
Can live and look on thee.'

His sermons often are prose poems. Occasionally they are common-place.
We are all dull at times; but they are generally lit up with

'The light that never shone
On shore or sea.'

I fancy, sometimes, Mr. Binney imagines that he has now made his
position, and that, therefore, less exertion is required on his part than
formerly. A weaker man would have sunk into the idol of a coterie long
before this. A minister is never safe. Popularity is often a fatal
boon. Some men it withers up at once.

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about our subject has yet to be said.
Though the popular pastor of a popular London congregation, he is still
plain Thomas Binney--still without the very questionable honour of an
American D.D. appended to his name.

THE REV. BALDWIN BROWN, B.A.

The pulpit is an old institution--next to the theatre, perhaps the oldest
we have. To almost every generation of men on this small isle set in the
silver sea it has revealed all that it has had to communicate relative to
this world or the next. 'Thanks to the aid of the temporal arm,' writes
Thierry of Edbald, King of Kent, 'the faith of Christ arose once more,
never again to be extinguishe