The "New" Parson.

Hastings Standard, Issue 114, 7 September 1896, Page 4

The "New" Parson.

The " -i, a parson," who, some time ago, instituted a Gospel service at which t< bicco smoke is allowed to ascend with the prayers of the congregation, appears to be still attracting " crowdnl hoa-ij " to the church in Spitalfields, London. Over the door of th* p'acn uf worship appears the invitation : —" Come Sunday at 3 o'clock to CI » C rch Hall, Hanbury street, aid lu\t a smoke and hear a bright It will do you good. Tobacco free to the early birds. Tea and a bite for ail." This announcement, touched up with many flourishes and capital letters, attracted a journalistic visitor recently, who has given a realistic account of what he saw. Hanburv -tr.* is the centre of one of the dnti'cts in London, and the hall picked with as ragged and sorrv a c« IN ction of humanity as could be imagined. The men were seated on one side, the women on another, nearly three hundred in all; and Parson Callings, curate of Spitalfield-, irra\«.<l n shirt sleeves, and - with a sntasianral pipe in his mouth, was i turning ummt, giving a twist of the aacUum- weed to one, showing hiv'iht - ' f it, comforting an old lam ~n a ;ir hof snuff and so on. There r- niarkable about the service, wnich was on the usual evangelical type, and only noteworthy for the free use of colloquialisms by the preacher and his evident desire to interest the audience without much regard for grammar or the precision of speech. The sermon had no text, and the subject seemed very much mixed, but the people liked it, and evidently understood it if their long band-clapping at the end meant anything. The sermon over, the parson put his pipe in his month, and puffed away, while the important business of distributing the bread and coffee was . proceeded with. All this seems more than half burlesque, but the apparent travesty was redeemed by the earnestness of the preacher, and by the practical charity which concluded the service. Parson Collings mentioned to the -visitor that since the church was started four years ago 30,000 meals had been given away at a cost of £'64. They had had cases during the winter of men dropping unconscious in the ball, and being taken out to die. The cause of death was starvation, and it was to relieve desperate poverty of this kind as much as to preach the Gospel that the church had been founded.