McNairy County independent. (Selmer, McNairy County, Tenn.) 1902-1969, 1916-04-28

| ing TO De lllLeu lltO tne llineilBHt Ny
any war of ours! | write this while
distant rumblings of the awful saturn
ALA of death in Europe are echoed
here, and the president of the United
States himself is telling the people
that we cannot tell what hour may
thrust upon us the dire task Of de-
Tending our firesides against an inva-
der. Then we may indeed pray that
a Grant or Lee may be raised up in
our defense.
Leaving Grants tomb, we walked
down few blocks farther, to see the
Cathedral of st. John the Divine, per-
haps the largest and costliest church
in America. Located at Cathedral
Parkway and Morningside Heights,
this great pile of masonry has been
building since 1890, and is not one
third finished, although three millions
Of dollars have been expended on it..
The main building, or auditorium, is
three hundred feet long, and standing
under the main dome we look upward
to ceiling 100 feet above the floor.
The groined arches over the main au-
ditofium and altar meet in the air l20
feet up; and support the roof. The
building, when all complete, win be
900 feet long, and cover nearly ten
acres of ground. | counted nine pill
lars supporting the altar dome, sixty
feet high and five feet thick. Sever
al attempts were made to turn these
columns out of single pieces of stone,
but they always broke; so the columns
are in two pieces. Everything is on
a grand and imposing scale, well beft-
ting Americas greatest cathedral.
They are building it for ages; but so
did the builders of the cathedral Of
Louvain and Rheims think: but where
are they now?
My wife and went in and heard
the services there, that beautiful Sun
day morning. The Bishop of Rhode
Island was preaching from pulpit
raised high at one side, and his text
was largely upon the lesson of the
present war. He thought mankind
would arise ennobled and more enlight-
ened from it. His voice rang through
the vast edifce, whose acoustic prop
critics are practically perfect. Plain
wooden chairs were placed in rows on
the mosaic floor, and they were not all
filled. But that was an aristocratic
audience, and a rich one! In the
contribution plates were high piles Of
greenbacks, but the envelopes with
checks in them, perhaps for thousands,
were even more impressive.
The service was very ''high church,
very much like that Of the Roman
Catholic churches, although this is
Episcopalian. The congregation were
continually rising and reseating them
selves; and there was a white-robeC
choir Of boys, with voices much like
those Of women, and the immense
ecno-organ, built on both sides of the
church but playing simultaneously il
perfect accord. The golden pipes rost
in tiers away up there under the lowel
arches, perhaps sixty feet above tht
floor, and the tones foated all ovel
like clouds Of harmonic perfume
There was something far away AMI
majestic about it all; and during |
prayer, the Ginning Of sweet belll
away up somewhere skyward in tht
immense upper regions Of the cathed
raj was inspiring the most impress
i've thing my wife had ever heard, sht
said. The assistant curates in theil
long, purple robes chanted things tina
sounded like Latin, and there was more
singing, both by the white-robed boy'
and by men in purple robes, and tEel
the boys in their snowy vestment
looking very much like my boyish con
ception Of angels, wended their wav
out, behind a priest who carried ;
golden crucifx, and the service wa
over. This was the occasional, foi
which service Rudyard Kipling wrot,
his wonderful poem with its refrain
Lest we forget; lest we forget" /
was all very impressive and grand
and touched every sense but the heart
but, as | said to my wife on going out
in the words of Reginald Heber
t "Dearer to God are the prayers of thi
} poor.
! LINDSAY S. PERKINS.