The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-05-01
rho nenutv of the Altar.

1hronging the 'broad road, ~ with no man to
nifty them there is a furious discussion on
Both sides of The Atlantic on the mere moon
shine of robes candles, incense, and sing-song
in the house of God. 1t is our opinion that
an humble and earnest effort to reclaim
Magdalene or a prodigal is worth all the
church tapers and genufections in the world.
And yet we are not surprised at these discus
sions. They are only abuses and exaggera-
tions of just and essential principle of church
life. Men of but little spiritual life, and per-
haps unconsciously affecting aesthetic culture,
deploring the want of true power in their
churches, feel that they must hold the people
by the eyes and ears. Music and pictures
and dress and acting must supply the place of
that which grapples with the understanding
and the affections.
In the Romish communion this tendency
finds a systematic development. The pomp of
Judaism is repeated with the addition of
number of pagan tricks. Everything is
strictly in keeping, excepting sometimes the
people. The churches are generally costly;
the affairs dressed profusely with an array of
gold and silver ware, and pictures and cruel
fixes; the music aspires to equal or surpass
that of the stage, frequently employing the
stage-singers; the walls are hung
about with noble pictures of martyrs and
saints, represented with upturned faces
in the direst coniunctuTes Of trial, or in
rapt and transfguring devotion. Most
frequently, in our own country, there is
only an audience to gaze upon all this con-
sisting of Irish or German immigrants, with
the lowest possible taste in any and every
thing relating to art. Indeed, ritualism and
its attendant artistic displays in the Romish
communion do not seem to aim at aesthetic
results. There is but little taste among the
worshippers even in Europe. There church
goers, for the most part, are the lower classes;
and the intent seems to be to furnish rather
nice puppet-show, which shall correspond
with the power of the confessional and the
magnificent claim of priestly power and infalli-
bility.
In proof of this view, we may note that
Protestant ministers who are perverted to
popery never seem to be attacked or entrapped
on their aesthetic side. They always profess
to find the shores of the Tiber as the result of
a search for authority. Now and then, indeed
some gay Lothario of an artist is caught and
carried over by the spectacular display; but
the cases are rather rare, and always shallow.
There is, upon slight view of the case, an
incongruity between the two sides of the char
acter of the Church of Rome-namely, the
artistic and the moral. The same institution
that delights in beautiful Madonnas and good
shepherds reioices in the dungeons of the In
QUESTION. Art is mild, genial, tender, refn-
ing. How, then, should the fell spirit of per-
secution seat itself for the creation of beauty?
How came Rome to be the patron of art ? The
answer, in part is that Christian art antedates
Rome's cruelty. Rome was first Christian,
then papal. Christianity, in its purest and
best moods, produced the early forms of art,
and thus created demand for the future.
But further than this, Rome developed in
ordinately the miraculous side of Christianity.
She kept open the spiritual world to the gaze
of her children; she watched for portents and
ghostly wonders; and hence, in an age when
only art and the priesthood were open to the
ambitious, the visions of the heated imagina-
tion sought expression in painting.
Among the Episcopalians, the case stands
somewhat otherwise. Here there is no Pope
and no .out-and-Out claim to infallibility and
yet the sermon has been losing its hold upon
the church people, so called, more and more.
Some boast that they do not go to church to
hear the sermon, but only to join in the SER
vice. The clergyman is something only as he
is priest. He wins reverence for himself
and gains respect for the Church, therefore,
only as he adds dignity to that part of the
service which is considered worship. 1t is
easy to see the drift of this view. Nothing
being left but forms of worship,
these must be made interesting and
attractive, or all is lost. When the
people weary of repeating the prayers,
beauty with every repetition, they must be
galvanized into life by intoning. When the
responses OF the assembly grow stale, the
choir must fling back at the altar a musical
amen instead When the common light, even
through stained glass, becomes familiar, tapers
must assist. When one priest becomes too
small point for the eyes Of the whole con-
gregation, he must have a train and get up a
procession. The problem is to keep up inte-
rest in mere forms, and to do this there must
be a ceaseless change-ot dresses, movements,
music--in a word, of sensible representation. =
Let this go on a while, and things will reach
strange pass. The Church. given up to art,
and converted into place, for the most part
OF refined entertainment, all the amusements
will be baptized and eonsecrated Dancing Is
the 8sthetioal form of walking; why not {
sacred dance in the Church? Did not DaviC
dance before the Ark, and Miriam lead tn,
host of God, on the banks of the Red Sea. in ;
sacred measure And as dress is one of tn,
great Church powers, why not all the people
dress up in the style of those who serve th,
altar Are not all the Lords people priests
Why not have grand church masquerade
Certainly there were professions about tn
Temple in the olden times. And why nigh
not every worshipper, thus robed, carry hi
own taper to church, as Gideon's men carries
their torches If these changes, CROWN
gradually into use as old forms wear out
should be considered Improvements, the
wonld have at least one advantage-that il
if the churches were open at night, the thei
tres would feel the competition. This to
would have the advantage of disposing of til
knotty question of the relatiOn~Of the Churc
to anus, 'ments. Now, it is said that we scol
the ordinary amusements as inconsistent wit
Christianity without giving the people an,
tl9Nf frit CHI n,