The Sun.
London, England, 1865-05-18 00:00:00

Festival of the Sons of the Clergy.

The 211th anniversaryof this festival took place
yesterday afternoon, under circumstances more
than usually propitious. His Royal Highness the
Prince of Wales having consented to become a
Steward of the charity further promised to grace
the Festival with his presence, and, according to
custom, kept his promise. There was full Choral
Service under the Dome of St. Paul's Cathedral,
beginning at half-past three, and lasting till half-
past five. The Prince arrived so punctually that
Service commenced precisely at the appointed hour.
His Royal Highness entered by the west door—the
prominent object of interest in a sort of State pro,
cession.

-We need scarcely remind our readers that the
Festival of the Sons of the Clergy is in aid of the
funds of the corporatioh for assisting necessitous
clergymen, pensioning their widows and aged un-
married daughters, educating, apprenticing, and
providing outfits for their children. Its history has
been recorded year after year. That the first Fes-
tival was held in 1655 by a private association, com-
posed exclusively of members of the Church, which
led to a public body being incorporated by Royal
Charter from Charles IL, and that it owes its name
—" Corporation of the Sons of the Clergy"—to the
fact that the first promoters of the Festival were all
sons of clergymen is familiar to all, and the number
should be legion who interest themselves in the
welfare of the poorer and not least laborious
workers in the most sacred of offices. As, however,
too much publicity cannot possibly be extended to
an object in every way so deserving, we publish the
statistical part of the programme circulated in the
Cathedral yesterday afternoon :

" The society annually assists by pensions and donations
about 1,250 persons—clergymen, their widows, aged single
daughters, and children. During the last year £19,000 have
been distributed among these classes, but so numerous are
the applicants that the funds permit only of very limited,
and often inadequate, grants being made. The Governor;
grateful for the means which enable them to effect such a
large amount of good, would earnestly invite the continu-
ance of that support which the corporation has so long re-
ceived from the clergy and laity. It is especially desired
to raise the amount of the pensions to the widows and
aged single daughters of deceased clergymen, of whom there
are at present no less than 712 receiving pensions from £lO
to £25 per annum ; and the Governors feel confident there
must be many wealthy and benevolent individuals who
would be happy to assist in so just and good an object
did they know the extent of the pecuniary distress, and
consequent suffering and privations, into which a large
number of excellent ladies are thrown by the death of
husbands and fathers, whose life-incomes as clergymen
afforded no means of laying by a provision for their widows
and orphans."

Whether such labourer in Christ's vineyard should,
under any conditions, be forced to exist on such
" life-incomes," is a matter for consideration else-
where. The musical festivals of the Three Choirs
of Worcester, Hereford, and Gloucester tell much
the same story, and are likely to reiterate it for ages
to come. Happily, among the lay community the
Church has countless friends and well-wishers ; and
of this the result of yesterday's service and dinner
(at Merchant Taylors' Hall) will, no doubt, afford
one proof among many.
The Choral Service, under the superintendence of
Mr. Goss, organist of St. Paul's Cathedral, assisted
by Mr. Geo. Cooper, of St. Sepulchre's, his able and
zealous " deputy," was in all respects satisfactory.
The choir, one of the most efficient to which we
have ever listened, was composed of the choral
members of her Majesty's Chapels Royal, St. Paul's,
Westminster Abbey, St. George's (Windsor), &c.,
with female singers employed at the special
Sunday services in the Cathedral which the Bishop
of London is entitled to call his own. The music
was really first-rate. That the " suffrages" were by
Tanis may be taken for granted. A century hence
it might De foretold that any reporter of the 311th
anniversary of the Festival of the Sons of the Clergy
would have to write the same sentence, or words to
the same effect. Hardly as much could be prophesied
in favour of the pretty but somewhat trivial chant
in E, by W. Russel (formerly organist at the Found-
ling), sung to the 89th Psalm. Hardly as much could
even be predicted for the anthem, " I was glad when
they said unto me, ' We will go into the House of
the Lord,' " written by Attwood, Mr. Goss's prede-
cessor for the Coronation of George IV., in 1821.
And yet this anthem is stirling music, and its com-
poser was one of the favourite pupils of Mozart,
whose music Attwood was among the first to pro-
pagate in this country. But on the " Preces and
Responses" of Thomas Tallis time has written " no
wrinkle." The " Magnificat" (My soul cloth magnify
the Lord), after the first lesson, and the " Nunc
dimitti,s" (Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant de-
part in peace) after the second--both in F major—
were the compositions of Mr. E. J. Hopkins, of the
Temple. They were admirably sung by the united
choirs ; and, to be brief, we have only to say that
we are enchanted to find our English organists—
among whom Mr. E. T. Hopkins stands in the very
first rank—willing and able to write such thoroughly
pure and excellent church music. There is freshness
as well as grace and musical knowledge in these
really charming pieces. The third collect was
followed by " How lovely are the Messengers," the
chorus from Mendelssohn's " St. Paul," about the
ineffable liveliness of which it would be supereroga-
tory to write one word. Its execution and effect
were perfect.

The sermon was preceded by the most important
and the most interesting musical performance in
the whole service—the most important because of its
extended plan, and the most interesting became it
was a new composition by Mr. Goss. We have often
in these columns urged this learned and genuine
master to write more for St. Paul's Cathedral, of the
musical fame of which he is the veritable columnus.
The present occasion was auspicious, and he has
availed himself of it in the happiest manner conceiv-
able. The words of his Anthem (in E flat) are by
the Dean of St. Paul's, partly original, and partly,
if we are not mistaken, borrowed from a poem by
himself, called " The Martyr of Antioch." Here
are the first two verses :

" Brother, thou art gone before us, and thy saintly soul is
flown,
Where tears are wiped from every eye, and sorrow is un-

known : _
From the burthen of the flesh, and from care and fear

released,
Where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary
are at rest.

" Tho toilsome road thou'st travelled o'er, and borne tho
heavy load,
But Christ hath taught thy languid feet to reach his blest
abode.
Thou'rt sleeping now, like Lazarus upon his father's breast,
Where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary
are at rest." •

Mr. Goss has set the foregoing to one of the most
melodious and expressive movements in the whole
range of modern music for the Church. The solos are
for a bass voice (extremely well delivered bylkir. Winn
in the choir) ; and these play almost as conspicuous
a Part as the chorus in a composition which the lovers
of genuine art will not willingly let die. The other
paw of the anthem are entitled to scarcely less
Praise for the fidelity with which the sentiment of the
/v°r(l4 is Conveyed, and for harmony always pure and
rich, without ever being
far - fetched (" simplex
munditii3") ; but the
opening andantino is a model.
The anthem of
l Ir. Goss, remembering that it is
entirely new, and
could not have enjoyed the ad-
vantage, at any
rats
rehearsal, wasmarvellously of more than a single general
well sung, and must
have deeply impressed every° attentive hearer. We
are glad to learn that from the same accomplished
pen may be expected a Te
Deem,
composed ex-
pressly for the next meeting of the Charity Child-
ren in SC -Paul's (June 1).
Mr. J. H. Coward, M.A.
(minor ca
Cathedral), " intoned" and read the prZe-rs-
of the
,The Dean of St. Paul's read the lessons, and the sermon
was preached by the Very Rev. Harvey Goodwill,
D.D. (Dean of Ely), who selected for text a signi-
ficant passage from St. Paul's First Epistle to the
Corinthians, chap. 16, ver. 1 : " Now concerning
the collection for the saints, as I have given word to
the churches of Galatia, even so do ye." The dis-
course—eloquent, emphatically delivered, not a bit
too long, and quite to the purpose—evidently inte-
rested the most illustrious of the assembled congre-
gation, as it cannot fail to have interested all who
were sufficiently within hearing to catch every word
of it.

The last and by no means least interesting of the
choral performances was a psalm (46 Cluny")—one

of the earliest of the renowned "371" by John Sebas-
tian Bach, selected from the Oxford edition of
Mercer's comprehensive and invaluable " Church
Psalter and Hymn Book," and sung to " Jerusalem
the Golden," in lieu of the far inferior tune to which
we have hitherto been accustomed. The first section
of the melody, harmonised by the sublimest of har-
monists, is almost identical with the " Old Hund-
redth," but the rest is quite different, and nothing
could be more solemn and impressive than the whole.
The first and last verses were given in unison—a
graceful challenge to the congregation to add their
voices to those of the choir. The " blessing" was then
pronounced by the Bishop of London, and the State
programme slowly quitted the Cathedral by the same
door through which they had entered, the voluntary
selected, and admirably executed by Mr. Goss, being
the magnificent gravamente from Bach's Fantasia in
G major.