The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-03-31
to. as the nearest thing to the home err

to. as the nearest thing to the home ar
ticle.
One OF the difficulties with which min
listers have to contend is the ignorance
or the Bible on the part OF their congre-
cations, which makes scriptural allusion
and illustration ineffective The illusions
and Illustrations have TO be explained at
length in order to make them Ineligible
A thoughtful man cannot help wonder
now long the churches will be content
with a system of Sunday-school instruc-
ton that produces this result.
Attention is called by Chicago Metho-
dist paper to an address by DR.. Frank
Damrosch at the annual dinner of the
Methodist Social Union of New York, in
which he Condemned operate music in
church and the enjoyment of qusrtette
choirs. DR.. Damrosch said he saw three
main uses of music in the church-as a
preparation for spiritual thought as a
means of expression for the deeper emo
tons. and as an eevating force for bring
Ing the soul nearer to the divine power
The quartette choir is an American insti-
tution, and 1t is perhaps the cause of more
trouble In the church than any other
thing. l would not advise Americans to
be proud of it. Not that we do not have
excellent quartettes. but the more excel
lent they are the less fit they are to be in
the church. The solution of the quartette
difficulty is the chorus. Choral music, to
my mind, is the only music that is fit
for the chuch, in that it sinks the indi-
Vidualty of the performer in the mass. l
would not, however, exclude the inciden-
tai solo from its proper place In a com
position" The chorus as a substitute for
the quartette choir, adds the Chicago pa
per. is growing in favor. 1t not only re-
moves the necessity for the employment
OF professional singers, regardless of their
personal character or sympathy with the
services, but it affords an opportunity for
! the utilization of the musical talent of the
| church itself, thereby more closely iden-
| Trying young people with the church and
| increasing their attachment for It,.
| The once famous DR.. De Witt Talmage
has been having his say on the subject
! of the Calvinistic creed of his church. 1t
is given In the Christian Herald In reply
| to woman who was once a Baptist, but
is now a Presbyterian. Since joining the
Presbyterian Church, she has discovered
that that church believes in the damna-
| ton of infants, and "as her three chill
| dren had died she Is distressed beyond
measure by the aforesaid doctrine" DR..
| Talmage comes to the rescue with these
assuring words:
The Presbyterian Church will at the
next meeting of its General Assembly,
send flying that passage in their creed
which allows any uncertainty about the
future happiness of any infant My theory
is that the offensive lines in that creed
were either an Interpolation by some one
who wanted to make religion obnoxious,
or that, through inadvertence, or hasty
desire on the part of the members to get
to their homes. that weak plank of the
religiuos platform was allowed to stay.
A swarm of flies and mosquitoes in Phil
adelphia on July 4, 1776, FASTENED the adj
| journment of the convention that was
making the Declaration of Independence,
and those who were signing the document
had to put down their pen to scratch the
intiamed cuticle; and some disturbance
not reported may have FASTENED the adj
| journment of the holy fathers who were
preparing a creed for the Presbyterians
of all centuries Or it may be that some
prentice hand" put in it's work while
| the old theologians were asleep in their
chairs after their exhausting labors in
explaining the eternal DEGREES.