Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-06-21
THE WAVE OF HERESY
Now Sweeping Over the Churches
Will Leave a Lot of Wrecks.
SIGNIFICANT TALK BY PARKHURST.
Such Men Will Not Be Bound by Anything
but Sound Reasoning.
HOT SHOT IN A SERMON AT ST. THOMAS
WRITTEN FOR THE p1spArcH.1

SnC PiOPoI tuluS W uo Ou Ouuuay was W ~
to St. Thomas Church to hear the music
which was said to be the finest in the city
Very many attractions present themselves
in the way of church going just now in tht
great metropolis and it was something of {
problem where to go with Heber Newton
making noise in the world, with lot Of
people boring Bishop Potter to have him
disciplined. for heresy, with Parkhurst
doing his utmost to break the Westminster
Confession to pieces, and pegging away
apparently to upset the very foundations Of
Presbyteriansm, and with Talmage pranc.
ing about the stage OF his new tabernacle,
and DR.. Hall holding forth in good ortho.
dox style.
With not many Sundays at command, we
did good deal of church going while in
New York, but of course could not take in
all of the attractions. However, we did
''do" St. Thomas for the sake of the music.
That was pretty much all there was of it,
except the very fashionable people who
compose the congregation and do their de-
votions in the most elegant and esthetic
manner.
Not So Very Inhospitable.
St. Thomas, be is known, is away up
Fifth avenue, where the ''400'' live and move
and have their being. As may be sup
posed, it is very handsome church, fur
nished in the most gorgeous and orthodox
style. Before going we were told that its
members were not very hospitable to
strangers-that We would, very likely, be
slowed away in an obscure corner where it
would be difficult to either see or hear
that if we got scat at all we would be in
luck-that the gospel there was not dis
pensed to sinners poor and needy.
But let it be known to the credit of st.
Thomas that the Pittsburg pilgrims were
treated quite royalty, and were handed up
to high seat, where they reposed upon
downy cushions, with not wrinkle in the
roseleaf of pleasure, nor ruffle of care to
disturb an angelic frame of mind No ex-
pense seems to have been spared to make
st. Thomas enticing. Two grand organs
fill its stately aisles with noble melody, and
back up two choirs in their singing of
sacred songs. A quartet of fine professional
singers gave us some divine music, and the
ing instead of singing.
Music to Be Raved Over.
What all that wealth of sacred melody
costs we do not know, but it is no longer
wonderful that people should rave over the
music at st. Thomas. The anthem seemed
to be voiced by Heavenly host" None
of the singers being visible made the illu-
sion all the more striking. The chanting
was not SO good as what we are accustomed
to at Calvary, queer mannerism and
odd accent being noticeable which sug-
gested the idea that the singers were for
eigners, and did not understand the senti-
ment Of the words they strung off 50
rapidly.
None Of the music was Of the depressing
or melancholy order with the effect of max
ing people think of nothing so much as
their latter end-the near 20 ;sibility of
their future doom being hades, there to
dwell with the devil. and his angels In
beauty, fitness and artistic rendering it
made the hearers feel as if "compassed
about with songs of rejoicing" and gave
them sense of rest and refreshment.
While the service impressed upon them the
fact that they were indeed miserable sim
ners" the music had the effect of making
them feel as if there was some pleasure in
life and some hope in the future. For the
time they ceased to contemplate the bot
tomless pit and "endless fire and chains"
and the "Gulf Of Dark Despair"
A Pulpit Idea OF Sin.
But If the music was entrancing, the ser
mon was amazing. The only point made
was that "unbelief" is the deadliest of all
sins. Dishonesty, drunkenness, immortality
were all pretty bad, but the crowning sin Of
all was to doubt anything in the creed or
doctrine held by the church as truth. To
keep all right, and make yourself secure for
heaven - as DR.. Parkhurst says you
4
brains with ,sawdust. According to this
poor little episcopal, (" no man or woman
can be an independent thinker and good
churchman.
But if this good brothers sermon was
weakly stupid in these days of vigorous
thinking and heresy-hunting, there was
plenty Of strong talk in that of DR.. Park
hurst, who boldly discoursed upon the dis
1uiet of the Presbyterian Church particu-
larly, and the rumpuses in the church at
large. This mental and doctrinal uneasi-
ness he describes as a tempest sweeping
over the entire continent, not in any special
but in the air-a sort Of
grip as it were. The Roman Catholic
Church has its McGlynn, element;
he Baptists are berating Bridgeman; the |
Queary and arc now after Newton; the |
are battling over Briggs, |
while the Methodists have their fight over |
he heresy of admitting women to the full |
privileges of the church.
Pleasures Of Heretic-aunting.
Brother Parkhurst says the church now,
s always, has quick, keen relish of prose-
ution. There is no pursuit it so much |
leretics and put on the screws is one of the
oh,,ro Hot ~
II John Knox, or Cotton Mather, or any of
he old Puritanic crowd in the great be-
-ond will think of that sermon, there is no
means of knowing-unless the Spiritualists
,et medium to tell-but there is nothing
more sure than that in their times Brother
'arkhurst would be branded as hereto of
he most mischievous pattern, and very
ikely be tortured or burned at the stake.
He made bold to say in this sermon that
he Church took vastly more pleasure in
uniting down hereto than in converting
sinner. That it raised piles of money to
onvert a heather and get him into the
,hurch, but the moment of extreme felicity
the time when enthusiasm flashes up into
ne compact flame of radiance and heat-is
7hen there is prospect of "getting man
1g sermon he was about as hard upon "the
10th" and the Church as Ingersou himself
lear this: 'eThe Church has always fought
ew ideas. 1t never subscribes to dis
Dvery in science until it has to. 1t always
-idens its conceptions grudgingly and
1lkily. When on the frontier between the
nown and the unknown, it has always be-
aved as though 1t were scared. And the
ian who has new understanding of things
always a hated man. No matter what
is character may be, no matter what his
ltegrity, no matter how willing he might