SACRED CONCERTS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 7442, 13 August 1895, Page 2

SACRED CONCERTS.

ITO THE ICDITOB.I •18. - L(-— your miltured correspondent and scholar from Oxford with the _ <v. (who, by ih. way, does not forgpt to put 'em all on) . hould think, like Hir Joseph Farter, that hi* r-tt-rauces are unanswerable, ler tve a little of your space for reply My object in writiag it first was to expose tho go-culled " sacredne~s " of some of theso t:avellii!gcompaniL-B'Sunday night concerts, and to warn the general publio of what iln-y might expect. I believe in calling things b. their right names sine ccra, and not by untruthfulness, leading the publio to expect a very different thiug to what they obtain. Where the narrow minded bigotry comes in I ftiil to see. To say that everything is '' sacred " whi:h fulfills a mission for good is simply ridiculous Where does the mis-on for good coma in in this instance P Is it in obtaining money under falsa pretences? And ia not the motive power or 'mis'ionfor good"iv all these Sunday night concerts the collection This reminds me of the story of the three cast-a way sailors, who in their desp iir, thought they f-hou—l do something religious. Finding that neither of them could pray, they deeded that the next beet thing to do waa to take up a collection There is just as much mission for good iv ono a-, the other. Why, Kir, I chastise _(y ohildren, when necessary, behoving it to be for their good, but oannot see whore the gacreduess oomes in ; on the I other hand, it is a moot unpleasant proceeding, although a duty. If that is the kind of logic and common-sense the? teach at Oxford, ie is no wonder that students from there should be willing to olass " Larboard Watch " and " The Arab's Fare veil," &c , as sacred songs. I trust jour correspondent enjoyed Munday night's entertainment, and that a feeling of "sacredness" pervades him now. "To the pure all things are pure."— I am, &o , R. H. Robinson.

PiS.—Lilla Wilde's effusion brings out her real character Anyone who would call Toplady's " P.ock of Aye. "—a hymn whioh has proved a real bletsing to thousands, throughout Christendom—a " serlo comic song" must be very depraved in- t deed, and is unworthy of reply.—X. H. R.