Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1875-07-04
The Address

Il is with feelings Of sincere pleasure
that / have accepted your kind invitation
10 he with you on such an auspiCiUus Oc-
casiOn as the preseut-tbe occasion Of lay
ing the corner stone Of your new church.
The laying the corner stone of a church
naturally suggests the subject Of church
architecture.
The importance Of ecclesiastical archi-
ture cannot be over estimated. The time
has scarce gone by when it was looked
upon as secondary and subsidiary. And this
partly explains why our existing ecclesiasti-
cal structures are, for the most part, de-
fectiye, and niggardly, and are remarkable
for everything and anything but architectu-
RAJ beauty and symmetry. This remark ap-
plies not merely TO churches generally
throughout the country, but TO those that
are 10 our own immediate diocese In par
ticUlar. Say what we will, our churches,
upon the whole, are not what they should
be. They DO not beft their high uses.
Most of them are but i'll adapted for ac-
complishing the purposes for which they
were intended, and, taking them rs a whole,
our churches have little or nothing about
them to commend them as worthy Of the
'beauty Of holiness
Any attempt, Therefore, to erect suitable
and commOdiOus places Of worship ought To
be matter for sincere cOngTatulatiOn. II
has been said Of the Reformation that what
ever else it achieved or swept awsy, il
sounded the deatlskn OF Christian art
No doubt the principles involved in the
Reformation withdrew mems attention
from the outward mien and expression OF
religion. Art, after all, is but the drapery
of religion, But religion can use art-caI
profit by it, and l rejoice TO find that il
our modern churches we are coming bach
more and more to the medieval style o.
architecture.
The revival of medieval art has origi
| mated, l believe, and lives on the reaction
/ which it supplies to the vulgarities anC
/ common places which have characterized
| and accompanied our modern civilization
One great fault Of our churches is, that
| they are too small, and do not occupy thai
| position among the secular buildings which
| they ought to. In our cities and town!
| our churches compete feebly with Our pub
| lie buildings. We see factories and post
| offices, and couTt-houses and new hotels
| but you hardly see churches. Whereas, il
/ foreign towns, the churches tower up allow
/ the surrounding houses, and seen TO ruiz
the city. They have breadth, length
| grandeur and ample provision for laTg'
congregations. At Client, at Antwerp, o
at R0ueD, the churches are on a scale IN
known here. With, perhaps, the exception
Of st. Pauts Cathedral, London, there L
nothing that can compare with those noble
| magnificent works erected in those cities
which, in the middle ages, were the centre
of a nations industry. What We want ar
! large churchly edifces where tn
rich and the poor can NEE
and worship tOgether-resl clUrche;
! true churches, churches with appliances an
ample accommodation for Sunday classes
for societies, for guild, with committe
rooms and reading rooms attached
churches served by an efficient staff {
clergy and fed by mission chapels. W
often forget for whom we are building, an
lose ourselves in petty calculations Of al
cOmmOdstion, 1t is true, to take highe