The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-09-06 00:00:00

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ITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD

I was much pleased with

week on the proposed new church in Liverpool, and I am
sure that I express the opinions of every true Christian in
saying, that I trust they will meet with a cordial response.
It is not, however, for the advantage—confessedly a great
one—that more church accommodation would be afforded
to the busy thousands of this great commercial port, nor
the still greater advantage that the opportunities for
divine worship will be more frequent than heretofore, and
the service performed with an order and regularity which
might prove a beneficial example for other churches.
These are benefits of no ordinary magnitude, and suffi-
cient of themselves to entitle the proposal to general
approbation ; but they would be far outweighed, if your
expectation should be realised of the new church proving
a means of healing the unhappy differences which, we
would fain deny, now separate our Zion into parties.
Why should High Church be so high, or Low Church so
low, that neither can discover any good thing in the
other ? It is a grievance which should excite the deepest
feelings of humiliation, and if any means could be devised
by which the breach should be healed, and unity restored,
I feel certain that the event would be hailed by Church-
men, of all ranks, with joy unspeakable. My letter was,
however, intended to call attention to your remarks re-
specting the proposed choral aid to the services of the
church. Why should music be withheld from any part
where it can be appropriately introduced, or the practice
of intoning forbidden when it serves so well to keep the
congregation together, as they audibly join in the re-
sponses ? Music is the very language of heaven, and can
never be out of place, whether for the purposes of prayer
or praise. Of course I do not mean the elaborate compo-
sitions by which the Church of Rome seeks to please the
ear and gratify the taste of her worshippers, but the
simple, yet sweet melodies—the plain, but noble chants,
and the other choral accessories which the pure Church of
England has sanctified to the purposes of her d(

.evotion.

These can never be out of place. The words used in sing-
ing should, I think, also be confined to the Scriptures and
the Book of Common Prayer, for I view with great ob-
jection the introduction of doggerel rhapsodies, which,
under the name of hymns, are used in too many of our
churches. I trust no apology is needed for this brief
trespass on your valuable space.—l am, &c.,

A Ch URCIIMAN

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

SIR,—In this age of church extension, it is not very
surprising to find au appeal in behalf of a new church in
Liverpool ; but the manner and matter contained in this
address are somewhat unusual, and the grounds of its
claims to public support are so extraordinary, that some
observations respecting them may not be out of place.

That a serious want of church accommodation exists in
Liverpool, no one can deny who has taken the trouble to
make even a cursory examination of its enormous popula-
tion, teeming as it does with thousands of the poorer
classes, most of whom are quite beyond the reach of
pastoral care. _ _ _

Districts, containing some 8,000 souls, are found with
church-room for, perhaps, 1,000, and two clergymen are
probably appointed to minister among such a multitude,
while 1,000 souls are assumed to be the greatest number
that one active and zealous minister can properly take into
his charge. Churches are then undoubtedly required,
where the poor can hear the glad tidings of salvation as
set forth in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, pointing as with
a sunbeam to that blest yet rugged path in which the
wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err. In a recent
appeal for this church in the London Times, and partly
in the Liverpool papers, the proposed building is denomi-
nated a " poor man's church ;" and it is, moreover, said,
that the greater number of those who desire so much to
see the Rubrics and the Prayer Book "justified," and the
churches fitted up with architectural correctness, are—
the poor ! It also states that the rich and influential are
satisfied with things as they are ; and, after a specious
preamble about bringing (not the Bible but) the Book of
Common Prayer frequently before the people, calls upon
those very rich and satisfied people to aid the cause which
they are said to disregard. Surely this is nothing more
or less than a scanty garment of humility to hide a worth-
less and base deception.
Can any one believe that the poor and uneducated man
has any taste or desire for subjects of which he has never
even heard, such as correct architecture, fast and feast
days, daily services which he never could attend, and ru-
brics which are to him as an unknown tongue ? And is
the wayfaring man to be a critic of stained glass and en-
caustic tiles and piscinas, credences, five-crossed stone
altars, and rood screens ?

Far be it from me to depreciate correctness of style and
arrangement in our churches, but I maintain it to be a
fallacy and popular imposition to seek thus to pin the pure
faith of Christ to things having no possible connection
with doctrine at all.

If religion be a creed of piscinas and high pitched roofs,
and open seats, and even of prayer books, and yet not of
the Bible and of Christ, what is its value ? It is a faith
of man's invention, of man's mind, of human taste, and
not of Christ.

I have thought it my duty to say thus much, in order,
if possible, to influence the liberal and influential of our
town and neighbourhood to extend their generosity in
such channels as will best promote the well-being of man
and the glory of God.

I will therefore subscribe myself no Puseyite, although

for years
A MEMBER OF THE CAMBEIDGE CAMDEN SOCIETY.