The record-union., 1894-04-28

glorlned, this condition of affairs will be
intensified. An honest, industrious, in
telllgent, righteous and prosperous class
will be hated more and more for time,
but in due time patient continuance in
We'll doing will receive its reward"
1--WE are not proposing to join in the
disparagement of vested choirs of men
and boys" says the New York Church
mon lP. e.; "but we desire to ask
whether the conventional boy choir, as
found in large city churches, for exam
pie, can be reckoned as saving agency.
Under present conditions it is a great
deal to get boys into the church at all,
and there are choirs in which boys take
an intense interest, coming to the rehear-
sails and services eagerly, and without
cent of pay. But that does not imply
that the boys have any thought OF God in
their minds, or any desire to worship
Him for His great glory or that their
lives are growing any purer or truer Tor
all the words they sing. And If there is
no deepening OF reverence, no cleansing
OF lite i'll the choir boy, then the result
must inevitably be hardening OF the
heart from the barren repetition of holy
names, drying up of the very springs
of spirituality, as the most solemn mys-
teries of the faith come to be regarded as
mere musical performances, and the faith
ItSSl1 dS d IdlO Vi 1illl6 Il6uulDSt luOuRn
the words are strong. Even supposing
the sermon be fervent, and Ineligible
by half educated boys, the choristers are
not before the preacher, but behind him,
and are not expected To be moved by the
earnest appeals, but only to arrange their
music and find their places for the hymn
or anthem alter the Sermon In many
paid choirs are boys who have never
been baptized, whoi receive no spiritual
N OF rIn ron h fInir he anffs1
who do their work in the choir on Sun
day with no more devotion to God than if
they were on the stage of a theater, and
who go through the remainder Of their
lives with more or less conscious con-
tempt for church that was willing to
use their voices, but did not care to try
70 save their souls"
''The daily press of New England dur
ing the last week has made the installa-
ton Of the Rev. Philip ). Moxom, DID,,
In Congregational pastorate the text for
reflections upon Baptism narroWness and
bigotry," says the Wdtchman (Bapt.) of
Boston. "The undertone of implication
has been that, practically, DR.. Moxom
has been driven out of the denomination
by our narroWness and intolerance. Now
1t is proper to say, in the first place, that
The denomination, as such, has never
made any decision as to DR.. MaXom's or
thodoxy. On the contrary, upon the oc-
casions when our representative men
have been brought to the front he has
invariably been honored, and his two
principal pastorates have been in our
choicest pulpits. The churches he has
served have not officially pronounced
against his views. In both. we believe,
while he did not succeed in winning the
support of a strong minority because
they did not believe that he was in ac-
cord with the views commonly held
among Baptists. he held the allegiance of
numerical majority. 1t is impossible
for the most bitter critics of the Baptists
to make out DR.. Maxom martyr. In
the second place DR.. Maxom's confession
OF faith and examination, the other day
at Springfield, elected the fact that he
does not entertain certain of our distinct
i've views. He has simply left
US. And we fail to see how we can be
accused of narrowness for not renounc-
ing what our critics assert are our essen
| tlal principles"