Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1888-02-16
wATERvILLE.

The following is an abstract of the lecture
on English Cathedrals" delivered in City
Hall Monday evening by Judge o. G. Hall.
The lecture was delivered in Judge Halls
strong, entertaining way, and was attentively
listened to throughout;
The progress of civil liberty in England is
marked by the ruins of temples. shrines,
alters, abbeys and castles from Stonehenge to
Canterbury, from the cromlechs to the
cathedral. Castles are interesting but have
no connection with the present, while cathe-
drals are endowed with the principle OF
perennial life and vigor. They grow on from
age to age gathering dignity and grandeur
from the best effects of the sculptor and
architect as the centuries roll away. They
have been the storm centers of England
revolutions. reformations. and civil wars, and
thterwoven with their history is much that
makes the wonderful literature of the land.
The speaker began with an alluson to
St Giles church in marlborough, q
Cathedral before the reformation and the
church of John Knox, whose people $50 years
ago refused to hear the ritual of the church
of England. York Minister and Lincoln
Minister were in turn described. On ap-
preaching York Minister one is impressed
with feeling of reverence at the air OF
dignity and venerable age of its gray old
walls and towers no part of which has been
changed for $50 years. The interior was
described. Its floor contains an acre and a
half of space. Cathedrals always front to-
ward the West. The most brilliantly colored
window is always in the East above the alter
in the chancel that it may receive the first
rays of the rising sun.
Yorkshire and Lincolnshire were the home
of the New England fathers and
around their majestic cathedrals were
formed the ideas that inspired our
government. Each of their shres gave names
to counties in Maine. Lincoln Minister like
St. Giles, was founded by the Saxons, and,
like all Saxon founded churches, got into
trouble with the established religion. The
Pope used to excommunicate its bishops but
they kept on disobeying all the same. St.
Botolph's church in old Boston was described,
and a church service there. Old Boston
bells have been mmortalized by Jean Inge-
low Here was where John Cotton refused
to wear the surplice. Durham, Ely, Roches-
ter. Salisbury. and other cathedrals were
briefly alluded to and the leading features of
their architecture and history brought out.
solicity and enduring grandeur have through
the centuries instilled lessons of eternity and
truth From an artistic standpoint they are
less beautiful than the cathedrals of this con.
tnent, but they have more sincere aspect and
to Americans. far more interesting associa-
tons The lecturer then gave a most graphic
description of Strasburg and Milan cathedrals
From edifices like these the traveller from
the land of modern churches turns with the
inquiry of Lowell in his poem of The
Cathedral"
"Did faith build up the wonder, or did fear,
That makes fetish and misealls it God?"
The lecturer closed with a description OF
Surgeons tabernacle. 1t has no coronal OF
towers, no storied windows, no sculptured
shrines or saints. II is but plain capacioui
edfice, such as faith and sincerity might fur.
nish for religious uses, yet it contains the
throne of power more potent than any
cathedral of the realm. The preacher is the
attraction here and the worship is in danger
of becoming idoiatrous. Sturgeon has opened
the book of new theology, which is fast
setting bounds to state religion. But what.
ever nav be the result of his mode of religious
teaching, the cathedral of England must ever
stand revered as among the most elevatine
aud conservative influences of the land. Look
ing TRANQUILITY down from the fierce struggles
of the past-the heat in which were forged
the anchors of the worlds hope-civil liberty
patriotism and sentiment, poetry and art unite
to preserve aud respect them May the day
be far distant when the Cathedrals of England,
like royal palaces in republican France. shall
have become but the show places of former
grandeur, or like the castles of England.
days of chivalry or the abbeys of her days Of
papal dominion, shall have crumbled into ruin
The lecturer claimed that liberty of though
in religious matters has come mainly through
Saxon founded churches.