The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-10-24

ritual of our masses and the word of God
as expounded by the officiating priest, it
seems to me there can be but one
opinion"
Rev Charles H. Parkhurst of the
Madison Square Presbyterian church
Impossible! The most important element
in the service of the church is that of
personal service. The individually of
the preacher forms a very important part
of the service, and that could not be
transferred over wire, at least not
telephone wire. Why, can you imagine
Christ's sermon on the Mount of Olives
being transmitted over the telephonel
ALLOWABLE IN SOME CASES,
There is no doubt" continued DIR.
Parkhurst, "that our church services
could practically be transferred by tele-
named Beach, who resided. on Fourth
avenue, that used to have the late Henry
Ward Beecher's sermons transmitted by
telephone, or some other manner, to his
house every Sunday. The Rev. John
Hall has, or had, system of tubes in his
church on Fifth avenue by which his
sermons were transmitted to pews owned
by deaf Pensioners. In that case, how
ever, the worshipers both heard and saw
the preacher, and therefore received the
full benefit therefrOm, but the telephone
case is very different"
Rev. Palmer S. Hubert, of the Marble
Collegiate church, Fifth avenue and
Twenty-ninth street.-the, sir!e l do not
believe in the worship of God by tele-
phone, nor do believe it will ever come
into general practice. You cannot trans
nit the emphasis of the preacher, his ges-
lures, nor the look in his eye during the
delivery of his sermon. Not even the full
benefit of a service can be had, as the
magic of the human voice does not go
over the wire.
Rev. Father Ducey-I do not care to ex-
press my personal opinion as to whether
the full benefit of a mass could be trans
mitted to an invalid or anyone else abso-
lutelY prevented from attending church.
l am here to preach the word of God and
administer the rites of the Roman Cath
Ollie church according to its regulations.
1t holds distinctly that in order to receive
mass the attendant must be in sight of
the church or within sound of its bell.
That is all wish to say.
PRACTICABuITY OF THE PLAN.
At the Office of the Metropolitan Tele-
phone and Telegraph Company in New
York il was said that the telephone had
never been introduced into any churches
in this country for the purpose of trans
hitting sermons or church music. That
it could be utilized for that purpose there
was little or no doubt. just how many
parishioners could be connected with
their favorite house of worship could not
be told. as no experiments in the matter
had ever been made. =* l.fa 54 %.5
1t would be necessary, the officers said,
to connect the pulpit with a main wire to
a point some distance of, where the vol
ume of sound would be distributed on di
verging wires to the various subscribers.
Conditions would vary the num-
Der of subscribers that could be
supplied from this wire, but the maxi
mum would hardly. so far as now known,
be over twenty. 1t would be feasible,
however, to connect the receiver with
more than one main line. Each would re-
ceive nearly the full volume of sound and
transmit it to the point of destination,
where again the sound in nearly equal
force would so to the worshipers Music
had often been transmitted by telephone,
it is said to distant points, as the public
were aware, but the transmitting of
sound through the telephone from one
speaker to a number of different hearers
had not been fully developed. So far as
the company was concerned they could
see no objection to the introduction of the
telephone in transmitting religious SER
vices