Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1885-06-06
THE MODERN CATHEDRAL.
ELOQUENT ExP0sIrx0N OF CHRISTIAN
ARCHITECTURE'S INFLUENCE.
Extract From the Dedicatory Address Of Assist
ant bishop Potter, Mt the Conservation of
the Great A. 4. Stewart Memorial
Cathedral, Near New York.

awe look back from our higher civilization
to other and earlier ages which reared such
buildings as this, and remember how much |
these ages lacked. Tho age of the great cath |
edrals, we are wont tosay, was II you choose, |
an age of great devotion, but IL was also an |
age of great aud widespread ignorance The |
spirit that built Durham and Milan, Canter-
bury and Seville, Lincoln, Rouen, was an
age certainly ofsplendid gifts and of match
less labors, but IL was also an age of supersti-
ton even among the most learned and of
standardization among the common people.
We may cordially admire the enthusiasm of
those earlier days aud tho stately structures
through which it found expression. Butitis
quite consistent with such admiration that
we should recognize that since then fresh
| light has dawned on the world, and that a
| larger wisdom waits to guide our hearts and
| gifts to-day.
| There arc new problems that confront us in
America at this hour, and the building of
cathedrals will not help to solve them. There
| are new tasks waiting for the church of God
i'm this land, and stately and splendid ccclesi-
astical architecture is not tho agency to
| achieve them.
This is practical age, and its evils await
direct and practical solution We want the
| college we want the hospital we want the
reformatory; we want the crechc and the
| orphanago, tho trades school and the trained
nurse, the hygienic lecturer and the free
| library, the school of arts and the refuge OF
the aged, but we do not want the cathedral.
Yet, dear brethren, we want these things
and great many others for which they stand.
But l venture to submit that we want q
| great deal more than we want any or all oi
them, the spirit that inspires and originates
them. We may disparage Christianity as
we will, but the helpful and humane
activities of Christendom arc expicable by
no other key. The hands that have reached
down to snatch the pcrishng from tho jaws
| Of death and give them back To lite again hav,
| been Christian hands. The feet that have
) | run swiitest and soonest on all helpful anC
( healing errands have been Christian feet
I | The eyes that have seen tho deepest into al
: | our sin and perplexing social problems hay'
y been Christian eyes and the lips that hav
J. spoken the most quickening aud consolinj
: words, when all other lips were dumb hav
o been those of Christian men and Christai
v | women.
. An! how tho majesty of some might
temple, august and solemn aud STILL ha
taught man the greatness of God and all tn
| littleness and weakness OF man And where
in all the world, but in somo grand an
l. beautiful cathedral, have men seen til
:, | splcndor OF things unseen mirrOred 80 mi
At jestically and persuasivcly in things seen
e | The cathedral an anachrOnism ! And "
"a | what voices have rung through its vaulto
aises since Savonarola Numbered in III
Duomo at Florence and La Cordaire thrillc
all Franco from the pulpit of Notre Dame.
Or i do not say that these things have N
ID come to pass in other sanctuaries humbl,
r | and less costly than cathedral, but do sa
n that this is tho Office of the sanctuary in oi
human life, and maintain that that stru
'o ture which stands for influences so pote
oil and so supreme cannot be too stately, 4
IN spacious or imperial, and most surely cam
ed | be an anachronism in any age or in any Ian
ar | Ii is Kings house, nay, the house Of Xii
' of Kings; il is the visible home and symb
~ of all those forces that arc mightiest in h
tnExr and .ln
tie ton. Shame on us If wo belittle its object
lat begrudge its splendor.
he The wise and far-sghted founder of II
be fair city in the fields night easily, had
taken counsel of that utiltarian spirit whi
rules the age, have dedicated this site to a
other and very different use. He might ha
lc- | built factory Ghe last letter from his ha
" | which ever reached me was one giving ]
=: access to the famous silk factories of Lyon
e' or he might have reared here a hospital or
re-, inn, or a music hall. And il he had, and
be had spent millions upon somo such u
dertaking and blazoned it all over with
own name, who does not know how the
ere would have rung with his praises ~ a W
as shrewd, hard-headed, practical, commt
ng sense man But he set about instead to RI
ra- a house of God and other hands, bound
nj | him by the closest and most sacred ties la
hn taken up his work and carried it on to its
=" " bic completion, not to glorfy any eartl
hS name, but to the glorify and honor OF the
nd carnate Christ.
ty gift this is and bless God that He put il il
nd their hearts TO make it. We remember W
ro greatful appreciation that this princely bel
~ faction comes to-day from her hand who IL
inc 1t upon Gods altar unfettered by halting c.
ute ditions and unspoiled by unworthy reser
lck And we remember, too, with equally cord
ent | appreciation the wisdom and energy Il
ORC have guided this work in its progress a
.'. brought it To its successful conclusion.
'n we look about us here to-day those words
me Wordsworth spring unbidden TO the lips
ied | "TaX not the royal saint with vain expense,
i've With i'll natch hed aims the architect who plunI
-. | Albeit, laborlDg for scanty band
hls | Of white-robcd scholars only, this immense
l. And glorious work of fine intelligence.
Give all thou canst, high heaven rejects The II
Of nicely calculated less or more.
SO deemed the man who fashioned for the se
sa0 These lofty arches, spread that branching rt
SoS | Selfpoisco and scooped into ten thousand CO
in Where light and shade repose; whose mu
nh | swells,
" Lingering and wandering on rs loath to die ;
as- Like thoughts whose very sweetness yield
a, That they were born for Immortality.
", Fair is the house which art has reared all
y. this rural loveliness. May His abiding =
Q IL sence make 1t fairer still. May weary Sol
mn wakened out of their sleep of sin, learn
do | cry out with Jacob, when he came TO Beth
in "This is none other but the mouse OF &c
for this is the gate of heaven"