The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-05-11

| glrder. About thirty persons gathered to
hear Che Rev. Beverly Belts, at the Church
OF the Holy Idght, his discourse being not
merely on things temporal, but on things
eternal as WE'LL while the Second Avenue
Methodist Episcopal Church was crowded TO
its fullest capacity, it having been announced
that the Rev. Mr.. Steele the pastor, would
preach on the Richardson Mcfarland tragedy.
The extraordinary prosecutions" Of the Rev.
Mr.. Smythe, of "gin-snd-milk" fame, served
to gather large congregation, and the as
semblsge was rewarded by some allusion to
the new drink, which owes its general intro
duction to the indiscreet wonder of an unso-
phisticated reporter The assemblage at
Lyric Hall, where the Rev. Mr.. rockingham
breaches, "was of the usual intellectual char
acter, and ''the music was exauisitely rem
dered in that subdued tone which is rarely
found in our fashionable churches" But the
Rev. Mr. Frothingham's church is very far
behind the Rev. Mr.. Hepworth's in its musi-
cal features. That great religious news
paper, the New York Herald, is in ecstaces
about the music in the Church Of the Mes
siah, and even gives theological tinge to its
descriptions as will be seen in the following
extract-
'In accordance with the invariable custom the
music that great modern auxiliary TO fashionable
Christian worship In our great modern religious
temples, was very nne-that artistic music con-
genial TO the aesthetic tastes OF the congregation
meeting here-the music while bearing aloft on the
wings OF noble song the tired out and tagged SOUL
made by the bitter experience OF our rough every
day life and its trials, giving inspiration to hope and
to duty the impulse of ennobng purposes: the
music that, as much as prayer and sermon, has
really as good and Chrsanizing effect upon church
attendants"
After this one need not be surprised on
being told by Journalist" who without
doubt is regular in his attendance on the min
istrstions of the Gospel, that "a more bril-
liant sermon has not been preached by the
Rev. George H. Hepworth since assuming
pastoral charge of the church." In opposi-
ton to all this is a remark of Father OReilly,
at st. Mary Roman Catholic Church, that all
that is wanting nowadays is a fashionable
church and preacher to tickle the ears of his
hearers with arguments against the existence
of hell, and proofs that everybody is GER
tain of going to heaven. But we have here
the peculiar circumstances and conditions
under which the anniversaries are to be
observed this year.
The Christianity of the hour ''improves"
each passing scandal, leeds the prurient curl
osity of the multitude, and for every sin that
is revamped in the pulpit makes room for a
thousand crimes. The dangers of this recent
sensationalism are important subjects for
consideration at the religious anniversaries
which occur during the present week. The
clergy may rely upon it that so long as their
sermons find place in the columns of the
daily press as interesting reading matter, so
long will their work be essentially bad. If
they eradicate the evil, they may make the
newspapers less interesting, but they will
accomplish great good.