The Wyandot pioneer. (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1853-1868, 1854-04-06
TO BE CONTINUED.


ancient metropolis.
TO BE CONTINUED.
ssThe Fiddle wi a Heavenly Croak.''
The following from correspondent of
the New York Musical Review and Choral
Advocate, will repay perusal. There
are many prejudices which hang like
dead weight upon the progress of society,
or of the Individual who cherishes them,
which are no better founded, than the one
SO efectually removed by the parson.
Prejudices founded oh religious or con-
scientious scruples are among the most In
veterate, and not unfrequently among the
most unreasonable. Such are the preju-
dices formerly existing-and not yet by
any means entirely extinct-chiefy among
the descendants of the Puritans, and the
early Reformers, respecting the use OF in
strumental music, and its introduction into
the worship of the sanctuary. Sometimes
they extend only to instruments of GER
tain character; wind instruments, such as
the flute, &C., are tolerated, while all such
as owe their efficacy to cat-gut and hair,
are banished from the church, and their
use deemed scarcely reputable in the fam
lily circle.
There is hamlet-no matter where-
inhabited mainly by the descendants ofthe
Scottish Covenanters, who have inherited
from their fathers not only their sturdy,
unbending integrity and whole-souled pie
ty, but all their bitter hostility to "the sin
ful' practices of the men who WELD the
fddle-bow or who join the dance.
A young minister had come to settle
among them With a smile ever upon his
countenance, and a kind word for every
body, while zeal for his Masters work
shone out in every action, he soon drew
around him the sympathies and the love
of his humble parishioners. But ere long
he perceived change: friendly greetings
were coldly returned; mysterious hints of
the awful guilt of ministerial backslidings
occasionally reached his ear--knots of
men seen gathered at the corners of the
streets, engaged in earnest conversation,
indicating by their looks and gestures that
the occupant of the humble parsonage, that
stood full in view, supplied the theme.
A vague rumor had begun to float
through the hamlet, deeply affecting, in
the estimation of the stern old Scotchmen,
the moral character of their minister. 1t
was heard with incredulity, and indignant
ly, repelled; but it gathered strength;
doubt succeeded to confidence, until the
most stubborn increduity could resist no
longer; the unmistakable sounds of "tor-
tured cat-gut," proceeding from the par
sonage itself, reached the ears of that knot
of men, and the awful fact stood revealed
that their minister "played the fiddle. "
Such an enormity could not be tolerated.
The elders of the church came together in
secret conclave, to consult upon the course
to be persued in such an emergency, and
as the consummaton oftheir deliberations,
a committee was appointed to wait forth
with upon the minister at his home, ''and
deal WI him in a. faithfulness," and bring
back report of the result Of their mis-
sion to the remaining elders, who would
in the mean time anxiously await their re-
turn.
During all this time the pastor himself
had not been an unconcerned observer OF
what was going on among his people; nei-
ther was he ignarant of its cause. Con-
scious, however, of rectitude, he did not
think that duty required of him the sac
rifce of an exquisite and holy gratifca-
ton, to satisfy unreasonable prejudices
that he believed would be removed by a
iudicous course. From the window OF
his study he saw the committee of the ell
ders approaching with unwilling steps,
and Immediately conjecturing the object
of their visit, he determined at once to
meet the question in way that they little
expected. Meeting them with his usual
cordiality, he ushered them into his snug
study, and without giving them an oppor-
tunity to enter upon the subject of their
mission, he commenced an animated con-
versation upon a subject that Immediately
arrested their attention. Music was his
theme. He spoke of it as an aid to devo-
tion-ofits power to subdue the soul-=-tc
elevate it above the earth--to bring it into
/ almost immediate communication with its
Creator. He described the venerable
j Psalmist of Israel pouring forth with the
enthusiasm Of inspiration those glorious