APPLAUSE AT RELIGIOUS MEETINGS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 145, 21 June 1899, Page 2

APPLAUSE AT RELIGIOUS MEETINGS.

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—Your correspondent 'Citizen' takes exception to the applause which was manifested and well merited at the Pleasant Sunday Afternoon meeting last Sabbath. Evidently 'Citizen' misunderstands the nature of the P.S.A. movement. Its design is not to conduct a church service. No object could be gained by adding one more to the multiplicity of church services, since its aim has always been to reach a class of people that seldom enter the church. Though indifferent to the church, the P.S.A. Society assumes that these people are not hostile to the Gospel. Church methods fail to reach them. By conducting a meeting strictly unconventional in every particular, undenominational in character, a meeting where officialism is unknown, brief, bright, and brotherly, and where the Gospel is as faithfully proclaimed as it is in any church, the P.S.A. has been a glorious success amongst the non-churchgoing public. Here all classes are made to feel at home. Preference is given to none, excepting it be to the worst; these are made the most welcome in a P.S.A. Respecting the music which 'Citizen' designates as 'stirring,' we admit as true. This is not peculiar to the P.S.A. It is true of all forward movement work, and when it is employed as an auxiliary to the Gospel it proves a tremendous power for good. 'Stirring' music is seldom a sign of Respecting the applause in a P.S.A., it is common. I fail to see its crime, even in a religious meeting. The spirit of appreciation needs cultivation; where one religious service is killed by it a hundred die for the want of it. Scripture assures us that 'all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.' Christ was applauded to the echo by those who cried out, 'Hosanna to the Son of David!' The straightlacedand decorous people demanded that Christ should rebuke His disciples, and Christ replied, 'If these should hold their peace the stones would cry out.' During the early days of Christianity applause was common. Chrysostom was abundantly cheered when preaching in a magnificent church. I need not refer to the Methodist revival, nor to the frequent bursts of enthusiasm in many Methodist churches of to-day. Such symptoms are healthy. You seldom find them where there is stagnation. We do not apprehend much danger as a result of applause in our P.S.A. 'Citizen' states that 'levity and gaiety are out of place in the house of God.' With this I agree. He cannot mean that the applause partook of the nature of either. 'Citizen' states that he is in the 'habit of worshipping God.' A mission to such is superfluous. That the P.S.A. is likely to supply a longfelt need in Auckland is evident from the large number of working-men present last Sunday. In other places it has been owned and blessed of God. It has cheered the struggle of thousands outside the pale of the Church with life's inevitable Ills, and it has shed brightness over their descent to grave. We hope that proportionate results will follow here. Thanking you in anticipation,—l am, etc.,

R. WILSON,

Newton Mission.