AN ECCENTRIC SECT.

Evening Star, Issue 3369, 6 December 1873, Page 1 (Supplement)

AN ECCENTRIC SECT.

The Rev. Mr Davies, a clergyman of the Church of England, was employed by the London Daily Telegraph to interview the j London Sectaries. The Spectator thus summarises his description of one of the more eccentric religious bodies :—“ Do our readers know that Joanna Southcott has still her followers in London ? Like the SeventhDay Baptists they are very few in number, but not too obscure or insignificant to escape the eager investigation of the newspaper correspondent. ihe ‘Joannas’ meet, it appears, in a humble room in Walworth, and the congregation on the occasion of our author’s visit was limited to four—that is to say, three believers and one heretic. One of the trio, a certain Mrs Peacock, well stricken in years, has taken Joanna’s place, but she was careful to inform Dr Davies, ‘lt ain’t a material birth we look for, but a spiritual one.’ According to the same lady, the distinctive character of Joanna’s work is the demolition of Satan’s power, and they felt i aggrieved that the bishops to whom they j have appealed for assistance in this good work have failed to respond. The letter sent to thoir lordship was dated from the * Boyal Manger.’ ‘Mr Peacock, too, was especially aggrieved with Mr Spurgeon, to whom, he said, he had made a mild appeal at a Tabernacle tea-meeting, when Mr Spurgeon retired unceremoniously, and his deacons expelled Mrs Peacock forcibly from the premises.” One peculiarity of peculiar sects is the extreme length of their dc- | votional services. The yanderuanians, for instance, who are known to the outer world as having included Faraday among them, and one or two most able Indian officers, |j appear to be a depressed and depressing : body. In London they number about IUU members, and from Dr Davies’s experience of a service he attended in Barnsbury Grove Chapel he infers, if their worship does not belie them, that they must be the most dismal people on earth. A monotonous ser- ! vice of one hour and fifty minutes was fol- ■ lowed by a melancholy sermon which lasted ! more tlian half-an-hour, and to this succeeded j the Love Feast, before which, of course, the ■ strange visitor had to take his departure. But noc content with what he saw, Dr Davies gained additional information from a Sandemaniau, and learnt, among other things, that the feast is accompanied by the kiss of charity : - “At the love-feast each member salutes the person that sits next to ' him on each side. A delicate work, indeed, : would sometimes be that of placing the | brethren and sisters, if it were not ruled , that they should take their seats by lot ; for I the Sandemanians regard the lot as sacred.”