Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-04-27
NUMBER so.

~ Is III ualSer OF UeSeneratlng INTO cant.
The cant may be made to cover unreality,
as all cant does, but it is only truth, and
accepted truth, that is capable of such per-
version, and the truth of that phrase is
that among all unlearned Christ is person.
ally honored and revered, and his teach
lngs reverenced as they never were before.
What does it mean that John Stuart Mills
confessed that the ethics of Jesus can not
elsewhere be equaled? What does it mean
when Herbert Spencer aiiiImS that the 'ul-
innate ethics of humanity will be those
! OF Jesus, nationally understood? What
does II mean when Felix Alder declares
that when Christians live up to their re-
ligion there will be no need of lectures on
ethical culture? What does il mean
when Prince Bismarck asks for social WE'LL
being nothing more than Christianity
without phrases? What does it mean
when we find thas every man, the agnoStic
and the skeptic as well as the Christian.
who speaks on any subject whatsoever,
speaks with double confidence and satis-
faction when he finds that he can quote
some saying of our Lord in support of his
opinion 1t all means this at least, that
the mind of this generation is turned to
Christ and is intelligently open to him as
that of no previous generation ever was.
1t means this, at least, that the mind of
this present generation is in much the
same attitude as that of Christ's first hear
ers. The people of this generation is "a
people prepared for the Lord That it
is not dogmatic in its tendencies proves
nothing 10 the contrary, for neither were
the people who first heard him."
The Rev. George I. Rider saws in the
Liring Church (P. E); "Time was, and
not so very long ago, when artistic and es-
thetic tests alone prevailed in the organ
ization and constitution of church choirs,
particularly for important churches in the
larger cities. There was dearth of ac-
complished organists and choir-masters.
The haltsecular spirit of the prevailing
music demanded soloists of exceptional ac-
complishment, not often found among anna
teurs. Music committees restricted their
inquiries pretty much to the questions of
digital and pedal dexteritieS; to skill and
grace IN accompaniment; TO the artistic
effects down stairs among the pews 1t is
pretty much uor ct preterea aihG, in the in
quest for soloists. Those were the DAYS of
curtained choir galleries, within and be-
hind which, if we may credit the veracieus
chroniclers, many a tedious, long-winded
sermon was beguiled by quiet games of
cards, while behind the organ in the choir
room Spirits both red and white and of
various potencies, responded net infre-
quently to the open seasame of the ini-
tiated. 1t seems never to have occurred
to those early churchmen that church
music had anything to do with religion
nd oil Il
and the music mostly in vogue did not
make any very special appeals to the
spiritual and churchly resources of the
organ-lot. When the Swallows Homeward
Fly and The Last Greeting and Les
Deux Anges' of Blumenthal, and the grand
aria from Der Freischutz,' were purely in
the range of concert-room business; and so
were the frisky and tra-la-la adaptions for
our canticles, and anthems from Mozart,
Donizetti, Rossini and other renaissance
composers, savoring rather of the opera
house than Of the Lords house. The great
Catholic revival directly and indirectly
changed all that, and brought fresh and
new access of reverence and churchliness
in public worship. The Lords house be-
came recognized as indeed and truth the
Lords house, Timidly and very eau
tiously the weeds and unseemliness of the
great Puritan invasion were sloughed Off
and choir and chancel met together in the
decency, order and the spiritual and choral
beauty of holiness. Tipsy organists, free
and easy-going soloists. together with sur
reptitious cards. and 'flasks,' and private
stores were got rid Of, with their trump
cry repertoires Of voluptuous impieties,
and clean, sweet, start was made on
higher and holier lines The principle
was conceded that church services must
have religious music, and that the only
proper and competent interpreters of true
church music must needs be religious per-
sons; and 1t is generally felt that an ire
ligious, disreputable organist or choir
would be as offensive and scandalous a
solecism as the tippling parsons of old
Hanoverian times in the mother church."
Rev. Julius H. Ward, in the NORTH
american ReUielC, says: "Everv denomina-
tion has its wise leaders, who are trusted
and followed because they are able to
speak by the event and carry the rank and
file with them. You can think Of these
men, and can trace their hand-prints in
in our ecclesiastical history as you can
trace the furrow of plow through large
field. Francis Wayland left such an i'm
preston upon the Baptist body; William
Ellery Claiming had such guidance OF
the earlier Unitarians; Jonathan Edwards
for one generation, and William Z. Park
for later one, led the Congregationalists
like flock of sheep; John Carol first
organized the Roman Catholic body in
Maryland; Francis Asbury set in order the
Methodist household when his preachers
lived ON horseback; William Penn made
the Pennsylvania Quakers unique Chris
tian sect; the Hodges have set their mark
in this century upon the Presbyterian
body and among Churchmen there have
been at least two Bishops who have stood
head and shoulders above others of their
order in the ability to organize and de-
velop diocese into vigorous and expan-
sive life-John Henry Hobart and Alonzo
Potter. These natural leaders can neither
be commanded when they seem to be most
needed, nor can they be grown at will.
They come and they go, but it is the mark
of wisdom in ordinary affairs that they
shall be selected, whenever it is possible,
to take the control of their fellow-men
and to guide them in publ affairs 1t
matters not whether the episcopaie is
New Testament or not; the important fact
to be noted is that the moment you begin
to find anything like historical facts per-
tanning to Christianity. you discover that
| Bishops have the leadership in the Chris
tian church, and that the endeavor every
where seems to have been in the earliest
days to select the best man among the
| clergy for this important apostolic office.
| The period in which we are now living.
and the community in which the Catholic
! faith is to be extended, are not favorable TO
that type of Christianity which, for the
sake of distinction, we call historical.
1t is true that if the Roman and Anglican
| popu alton are taken together, historical
Christianity has numbers in Its favor; but
If you take account of the elements which
at the hour are most active in ou, relig-
ious world, it is Professionalism of evangeli-
cal or Puritan type which now controls
| North America, and is likely TO control it
| for long time vet to come. 1t is still the
purpose of Americans as it was two and a
| half centuries ago the purpose of our fore
/ fathers, to found church without a
bishop, as well as State without King.
| The American bishop of to-dpy does not
/ differ in his title, in his functions, or in
his authority from his Episcopal brother
i