The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1857-09-17

ward 8eccAea On Meth odtsn.
We insert the following remarks OF Mr.
Beecher, on the above subject, at the request
Of member Of tina. church. They are pleas
ant enough, however, to the general reader
| Henry. w ard Beecher is still rusticating al
1 Mattsawan. In his last letter We find TIL
! following "By the way, yesterday morning
| was at the Church here. A very pleasant
room it is, and am told that very worthy
society occupy it. But have most weighty
| charge to bring against the good people, OF
musical npostasy. hac expected treat Of
/ good, hearty singing. There were Charles
| Wesley's hymns, and there were the good
old Methodist tunes, that ancient piety loved
and modern conceit laughs at! Imagine my
chagrin when, after reading the hymn, up
rose choir from the shelf at the other end
OF the church, and began to sing monoto-
nous tune of the modern music-book style.
The patient congregation stood up meekly
to be sung to, as men stand up under rain
when there is no shelter. Scarcely lip
moved. No one seemed to hear the hymn
or to care for the music. How longed for
the good old Methodist thunder! One good
burst of old fashioned music would have
blown this modern singing out OF the win
dows like wadding from gun! Men may
call this an improvement, and genteel! den-
tility has nearly killed our churches, and it
will kill Methodist churches if they give way
to its false and pernicious ambition. We
know very well what good old-fashoned
Methodist music was. 1t had faults enough,
doubtless, against taste. But it had an in
tcard purpose and religious earnesfness
which enabled it to carry all its faults, and
to triumph til spite of them! 1t Uas wor-
ship. Yesterdays music was tolerable sing
ing, but very poor worship. We are sorry
that Just as our Churches are beginning to
initiate the former example Of Methodist
Churches, and to introduce melodies that
the people love, and to encourage universal
singing in the congregation, our Methodist
brethren should pick up our cast of formal
ism in Church music. Il will be worse with
them than with us. Ii will mark a greater
length Of decline
Wecould hardly believe our eyes and ears
yesterday. Wecould not persuade ourselves
that we stood before a Methodist Church.
We should have supposed it to be good sol
id Presbyterian or Congregational Church,
in which the choir and the pulpit performed
every thing, and the people did nothing
Our brethren in this Church must not take
these remarks unkindly. They are presented
in all kindness and affection. The choir
sung better than many choifs in city church
es, but no one sung with them. The people
were mute. They used their ears, and not
their mouths But, alas we missed the old
fervor-,he good old-fashioned Methodist
FIRE. We have seen the time when one of
Charles Wesley's hymns, taking the congre-
CATION by the hand, would have led them up
to the gate of heaven. But yesterday it only
led them Up MS far as the choir, about ten
feet above the pews. This will never do
Methodists will make grand good wouhiping
Christians il they are not ashamed OF their
own ways, but very poor ones it they are.--
Brethren you are in the wrong way. Ii
will never do for you to silence the peope.
Your ERE will 60 out if you rake it up under
the ashes of n false refinement. Let an out
slider, but q well-wisher, shy these plain
words to you without otfense. The Metho
dist Church has laid the Christian world I'M
der great debt By its service in the cause
Of Christ, and we have right in it, and an
interest in it, as common Christians, too
great to suffer us to see signs of degeneracy
in it without sorrow and alarm. We hope
God means to do great things BY il yet, for
our land. But it will not be by giving up
heart and soul, zeal and popular enthusiasm
in worship, for the sake Of sham proprety
and tasteful Journalism, that the Methodist
Church will become yet further Efficient
We hope to see such revival Of religion
among them az shall come like freshe. up
on their Churches, and sweep out the chan
nels OF song, and carry away the dead wood
and trash which has already damned up the
current 81 song, and made the congregation
stagnans. O, that there might be u rain Of
righteousness upon them, which shall swell
their hearts to overlooking, and cleanse
their sanctuary from all Journalism. and es-
pecially from the Journalism Of pedantic
music.''