The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1913-04-09


men from the spiritual. Similarly the
only hymns that are sung within the
church are the hymns of divine in
SEPARATION, the Psalms of David.
So when the time of morning ser
vice comes the 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 congregation sing to-
gether, and their voices are the only
music ever heard within the plain
walls of the Covenanter church. Per-
haps the psalm is the twenty-third-
set to music it runs thus:
The Lords my Shepherd, I'll not want
He makes me down to lie
In pastures green; He leadeth me
The quiet waters by.
My soul He doth restore again:
And me to walk doth make
Within the paths of righteousness,
Ev'n for His own names sake
Yea, though / walk in deaths dark
vale
Yet will | fear no i'll;
For Thou are with me, and Thy rod
And staff me comfort still.
A table Thou hast furnished me
In presence Of my foes:
My head Thou dost with oil aroint,
And my cup overfiows.
Goodness and mercy all my life
Shall surely follow me;
And in Gods house forevermore
My dwelling place shall be.
Then there is a brief exposition of
the psalm by the pastor, followed by
prayer, reading of scripture and ser
sung.
The old metrical versions of the
psalms have been to some extent re-
polished and crudities of line and
meter eradicated. but the committee
which has had this mork in hand has
not in any way changed the simple
strength and beauty of these Oldest
Of church songs. Thus the first two
verses of the ninetieth Psalm run as
follows:
Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling
place
In generations all:
Before Thou hadst brought forth
The Mountains great or small
Ere ever Thou hadst formed the earth
And all the world abroad:
Ev'n Thou from everlasting art
To everlasting God.
The laws of the Covenanter church
are strict regarding worldly amuse
ments; the church has put itself on
record against dancing, card playing
theatergoing, drinking and the use Of
tobacco. Covenanters believe in the
Calvinistic doctrine of predestination
that some men are predestined to be
saved and others to be damned.
Members of the Covenanter church
may not join secret orders, lodges OIL
fraternities. Missionary work is one
of the points upon which the church
prides itself and with reason. 1t has
one missionary in foreign field fol
every 275 church members at home
while the general ratio of missionaries
to church members for other denomi
nations is one to 5000
No one thing about the church il
more interesting and unusual than it:
attitude on the question of voting.
I'VE take no part in politics. DR.
Wylie says, "up to the point where
there is some immoral obligation re
quired of us. We vote on constitu
tional amendments and on the liqual
question. We do not vote for candi
dates for State and Federal office!
because these men if elected are
bound by their oath of office to en-
force laws which we believe immoral
The position of our church is yer,
similar to that of DR.. A. A. Hodge o
the Presbyterian church, who said: 8
refuse to vote under a constitution o
government which declines to recog
nize the authority of Jesus Christ
Cor, to use another illustration, ou
position is analogous to that of Wen
dell Phillips, who gave up lucrative
law practive because he was unwilling
to practice law under a Constitution
which recognized negro slavery. Thu
Constitution of the United States fail:
to recognize Christ as a supreme rule
and therefore we do not vote for can
didates for office.
! There is no one point upon which
, the position of the Covenanter church
! has been more misunderstood that up