The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-01-01
CHRIST CHURCH CHIMES
PROBABLY THEIR LAST TURN AT
WELCOMING THE NEW YEAR.
little Doubt of Sale of Property This
Ycar-Festivities That Ush-
cred in 1898.

On many a midnight has the frosty air
swathed the New Year, and with the New
| Year the sweetness of Christ Church
chimes. Last night heard the swan song of
these singing bells in their long career of
heralding the years, since another twelve
months will see, almost beyond the posi-
bility Of a doubt, demolition of the little
church on the corner, and the removal of
the sacred gray stones. The site is no
longer reckonad a point OF vantage for the
work of the Master.
If the chimes up in the ivy-embraced
steeple, each engraved with the name of
some one dead, knew they rang a welcome
and goodbye in the same intonation they
did not betray their conflicting emotions,
for the same familiar airs were pealed in
the same familiar way of years agone.
America" and 1.-THE Marseillaise" hymn,
for instance, thrillingly dominated the
shrieking and hoarse din of hundred fac
tory whistles Eternity itself has no more
liking for threnody than had those chimes
last night. To their very last quaver their
message was one of congratulation and
joy. On such occasions as these, even the
old bachelor grumbler, who sleeps till late
Sunday morning in some lodging house
near by, let's out kink or two in his
twisted, grabbed self, and confesses that 1t
is good to hear the bells Hopeful as they
are, they make a soft aching at his h ,s
reminding him in the advent of a new year,
Of his own fieeting days, and the happy
country they are leaving behind-au OF
which is painful, but not hurtIul
If the little church on the corner has
protest against removal it is too mute
protest to be heard, though there are many
people ready to affirm that the picturesque
structure itself is protest easy to be seen.
Like it's namesake and the lessons He
taught, it believes in meekness and hui
mility, and in what it believes 1T practices.
See how sober it sits in it's gray sackcloth,
while all about it is the dazzling white
nodernness of things If the powers that
be demand it's site for business precincts,
no doubt a spirit of resignation will mark
its fall. 1T will render unto Caesar those
things which are Caesars, IL Caesar IN
The evidences of civilization the neighbour
hood of the church bears are pretentlous
A hundred yards to the north stands
classic building, containing on its shelves
the stored learning of past centuries. TO
the south is the towering shaft OF stone,
concentrating herioc deeds and the saving
of a noble Union Of States, and furnishing
patriotic inspiration to coming generations:
The passing gayety of a piping time or
peace has its temple nearby. Almost
within the shadow of the church splre is a
schoolhouse There are many other bull si
ings in the neighborhood typifying the d1-
verse interests that go to make up Inuch OF
our daily life, but this old-faShioned struc-
ture, with its chimes, stands for time long,
long past, and it stands for time that VIII
be endless; it beSpeakS for men that Whlch
the arts of civilization alone Will not bring
the peace that passeth all understanding.
A legion of Indianapolitans feels distressed
at the thought of razing Christ Church.
Aside from it's picturesqueness, naturally
appealing to citizens so keenly alive to the
aesthetic side of life as they are in Indian
apolis. there is even more subtle feeling
Of sympathy awakened for the old land
mark. 1t is a feeling not easily defined.
Saintine. in his Picciola, tells the story of
man sickened with safety and prey to
ennui. Thrown into prison. he discovered
one day tender shoot springing from
Granny in the stone floor of the courtyard.
Watching the little plant grow into bush
and then Towering had a marvellous effect
on the prisoners life, and his whole nature
doubt it was the unusual surroundings, the
strange habitat of this picciola" that drew
his attention. and, being himself surrounded
by the same environment, his heart went
out to the little plant, and, his sympathy
having been won, he soon saw the lesson
! always to be seen in a growing plant OF any
other object animate or inanimate, on which
God has set His stamp. So 1t may be the
unique location of Christ Church attracts
men attention, then pleads for their sym
pathy, and, their sympathy going out to 1T,
they let their better feeling respond to the
mission of the cnurcn. is IL strange IOr
them to be grateful to their teacher and
deplore the laying of ruthless hands upon 1t?
To say the chimes of Christ Church, since
they were first hung, have welcomed in each
New Year is not exactly true. One year,
that of 1897, found the tower as silent as
death itself. The great and good Bishop
Knickerbacker had passed away with the
last day of 1896, and, after tolling sad a
message, their voice could not mellow itself
to one of joy. 1t was in the SOS when
Christ Church was built, and the chimes
followed soon after This was in the days
before events even portended the cruel
civil strife, the clash of arms and the valor-
Gus deeds for which stands the magnificent
neighbor of the little church.
Though not generally known, each chime
is memorial for a dead member of the
church, and bears that members name. The
chimes have sounded for some very beauti-
full services and for several very pathetic
ones. In the early days Mr.. Hand, an
Englishman, rang the bells expertly. Not
| long ago one of the choir boys met an un-
| timely death At his funeral in the church
his young comrades, fresh and innocent
| looking in their white surplices, bore his
| body UP the aisle, singing soft and low as
| they went and thus they bore him out
| again. A few strokes of the chimes suficed
| to tell how brief was his stay in the world
| Those who were at the service recall it
to-day as one of the truly touching ex-
periences of their lives.
Inen Inefe was the beloved rector, Mr..
Bradley, who first introduced the gospel
hymns into Christ Church. He had little
organ brought down to the chancel rail-
and there ne played these hymns during
| Lenten service, singing them in a rare tenor
voice, whose echo yet fingers in the hearts
| of his old pariSflioners.
over twenty years ago two actresses, both
we'll known, were buried from the church.
One was Mrs. Coleman Pope, member, and
the other Susan Denim, who died while in
the city.
There is no end of recolleotions lowering
about the little church on the corner, and
some of them are best forgotten. The I'M
pleasantness in the fold during the war days
and the split in the membership-but these
are all things of the past. and, alas! too
soon will the historic structure itself be of
that illimitable bourne, Time Past
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