The Washington herald., 1913-07-27
Church MEMBERS
Who WON'T Vote
In Their Worship They Re-
frain from the Use Of Mu-.
sical Instruments.
NEVER USE TOBACCO
Consresatisn Opposes Lodges, Thsater
Going, Takes No Part in Politics.
and Will Not Dance.

Kansas City. Mo-, July AIN q littl,
frame building on Summit Street nea,
Seventeenth Street a band Of less thar
100 worshipers gathers every Sunday tc
hold a service almost Puritan in its sim
plicity. There is no organ in the littl.
time comes to sing a hymn the precentol
strikes a tuning fork and the member.
Of the congregation lift up their voices
together In the words of a hymn written
not by modern musicians, but by the
psalmist David.
The place where this occurs il the
Reformed Presbyterian Church. I735 Sum.
init Street, the only one OF its denomina.
ton in Kansas City. 1t will be only foI
few more Sundays, however. that the
small congregation will gather in the
frail wooden building where services
have been held for II last twenty-five
years.
New Church for Them.
Within a month the members hope to
move into the Sunday School room OF
the new church which is being built
Only the Sunday School room will be
Covenanters' Church. as many members
Of the denomination prefer to style it.
do not believe in going into debt. Pay
as you 60 is their motto. and one might
add the further Injunction "If you can't
pay. don't CO."
There are many interesting things
about the Reformed Presbyterian Church,
some of which were explained to a visi-
tor the other day by the Rev. ]. NJ.
Wylie. pastor of the church. as he sat
In the sunny front room of his home. In
the first place, the church Is the direct
and DIR. Wylie says the only-lineal
descendant Of the Scottish Church of the
Covenant. established by John Knox
1t was John Knox. you may remember.
who was In the habit Of going fearlessly
up to the palace OF Holyrood in Edin-
burgh. where Mary Queen Of Scots held
her gay court, to rebuke the Queen and
point out to her the error of her ways.
And though the Queen did not like John
Knox and might have had him killed.
somehow she didn't; perhaps she was un-
able to help feeling for him . certain
grudging admiration after all.
Hunted Like wild Beasts.
At one time and another members Of
the Covenanter Church were hunted
through the mountains Of Scotland like
wild beasts, compelled to hold their meet
ings in hillside caverns and in open
groves. but still they held fast to their
faith. For they are sturdy folk. these
Covenanters. whose history has been a
story of fighting for freedom for some
thing more than $50 years.
They fought the house OF Stuart for
fifty years - from 1888 until William OF
Orange drove James II, the last Stuart
King, from England in 1855, and the
historian Bancroft; says that to the Cove
nanters more than to any other body Of
men. belongs the credit for the famous
Mecklenburg Declaration of Indepen-
dence. made in 1T75. Among the earliest
enemies of negro slavery We find the
Covenanters, and today one reason MEM
bers OF the church decline to vote for
men running for Federal Offices Is be-
cause the government sanctions the liquor
traffic.
Flowers, Too, Not in Evidence.
The service in the Covenanter Church
is as austerely simple as was the wor-
ship OF the Puritans who settled in New
There is no choir in the church,
no organ or musical accompaniment of
any sort. God is praised only by the
human voice Not, Dr. Wylie explains,
that the Covenanters believe there Is
wicked about music, only that
music, like all other forms OF art. has
no place in church services.
These men and women should come
together, the members of this church
believe, solely for the service Of God
and the exaltation of the spiritual. and
flowers and musical instruments and
other things usually considered part OF
church services tend to distract men
from the spiritual. Similarity. the only
numns that are sung within the church
are the hymns Of divine inspiration. the
Psalms of David.
So when the time Of morning service
tonnes to precentor, David Dodds, who,
Is an engineer for the terminal company
six days in the week. strikes his tuning
fork and the members of the congrega-
ion sing together. and their voices are
the only music ever heard within the
plain walls Of the Covenanter Church.
Perhaps the psalm is the twenty-third;
set to music it runs thus:
The Lords my Shepherd. III not want,
He makes me down to lie
In pastures green; He leadeth me
The quiet waters By.
Ny soul He doth restore again:
And me to walk doth make
Within the paths Of Righteousness.
Eyn for His own names sake.
Yea. though 1 walk in deaths dark vale,
Yet will fear no i'll:
For Thou art with and Thy rod
And stan me comfort stiA
A table Thou hast furnished me
In presepce of my foes;
Ny head Thou dost with oil anoint,
And my cup oSerhovS |
Goodnes. and mercy all my life