A LADY PREACHER.

Southland Times, Volume VII, Issue 539, 13 August 1866, Page 3

A LADY PREACHER.

Some of our London contemporaries noticed lately the peoceedings at the Literaay and Scientific Institution, Portman Square, where a Mrs. Thistlethwaite preached to a crowded audience. Here and there (says the Daily News) sparsely scattered among the congregation might be seen a small deputation from the fashionable world, but the vast majority of those filling the chairs and benches seemed to be drawn from the shopkeepers and domestic servants of the district, and were of the highly comfortable and respectable class from which the frequenters — say of Mr Spurgeon's -Tabernacle— are mainly drawn. Gifted with the most perfect self-posses-sion, a deep rich contralto voice, which is modulated with considerable skill and tact, and having her great natural advantages supported by that dramatic faculty without some share of which every performance before the public falls flat, Mrs Thistlethwaite is well qualified for the difficult role she has undertaken. And this was well evinced by the grave and serious attention she commanded long before her eloquence had play. From the time of the first line of the hymn being read out, every one present, whatever the original motive for their visit might have been, seemed impressed by the evident sincerity of the person before them. No doubt it was expected by some that an attractive woman would hold forth on religious matters, and that her avowals of sincerity and earnestness would be more or less true. It is scarcely likely, however, that either the rapid flow of words, always well chosen, sometimes eloquent, and occasionally poetical —or the intellectual force and energy perceptible in every action — or the striking nobility of feature — or the nameless air of refinement — could be anticipated by any one to whom Mrs Thistlethwaite is only known by name. As a mere study of character she furnishes a remarkable instances of the triumph to be effected over circumstance, and proves effectually that intelligent earnestness is more than a match for that touch of the ludicrous which attaches itself to the unconstitutional, the exceptional, and the peculiar. Her sermon on Sunday was of the type familiar to all who have frequented places of worship of the modern school. It was, however, free from the fierce denunciations and terrifying pictures which apparently form such tempting themes for inexperienced and selftaught preachers. The eificacy of grace, the inexhaustible character of the Divine love, the certainty of forgiveness for all, and the blissful fulness of those called and chosen formed the leading topics of her discourse. The pretty Methodist in " Adam Bede " did not throw her whole soul into her self-appointed work more thoroughly than the lady preacher of Sunday last appeared to do ; while by uplifted imploring eyes, by outstretched arms, by occasional excited pacings to and from the little platform, she fully realised the notion of a female enthusiast, who believed herself entrusted by the Almighty with the discharge of a prescribed duty upon earth. Nor, after a little time, did the sense of novelty in listening to this female preacher interfere with the attention due to her discourse. The elegant "black silk dress, with its plain white collar and cuffs, formed no unseemly contrast to the gown and bands one is accustomed to behold on the orthodox figures of clergymen of the established Church ; and, granting it to be expedient for a lady of Mrs Thistlethwaite's position to preach at all, there was nothing in her demeanour or arguments to provoke hostile criticism. It should be stated that both prayers and sermon were delivered withont a note of any kind, while from the comparative frequency of its perorations and its consequent occasional tendency to anti-climax, the latter was obviously extempore, and that when Mrs Thistlethwaite said, in conclusion, that in her anxiety to save souls she " could go on until to-morrow morning," we had the fullest belief, derived from the flow of language we had already heard, that she did not over-esti-mate her powers. *