SINGING IN CHURCH

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21328, 1 November 1932, Page 12

SINGING IN CHURCH

SERVICES AND PEOPLE OVEIiDOSE OF MATERIALISM ARCHBISHOP JULIUS' VIEWS " Fifty years ago tho scientists told us that spiritual things wero quite beyond us; to-day, however, the greatest oi them say that matter is unreal and (hat if. is the spiritual that is the great reality. They believe, moreover, that WD skill never find it until we como closer to God, and, already, there is a tendency toward change," said Archbishop Julius, preaching at the dedication festival service of the Church of tho Good Shepherd, Phillipstown, last, week. Archbishop Julius took for his text " How shall we sing tho Lord's song in a strange land ?" and lie applied it to the early days of Babylon. Of church music generally, and tho hymns in particular, he said that most of the best of them wero born out of sorrow and suffering, therefore they were lasting. Conlury after century had passed and y«t they wero still sung the world over. With an added beauty through the graco of God, tho songs of Zion took on a newer and higher meaning. "And yet," said the archbishop. " there seems to bo something wrong. Somehow the life seems to have gone out of much of our worship. I have gone into v.he great churches where people have Listened to the choir and tho organ and taken no notice of them. Hymns that no one knows, or wants to know, have been sung. The trouble is that during. tho last 80 years we have been losing touch with the spiritual things; wo have had an overdose of materialism. " People aro apt to blamo bad singing, bad preaching or bad something else, but that is not tho cause at all. Wo a(|o always wondering what the other person is thinking. Tho root of tho whole thing iies with the people themselves and the "warmth of congregational worship must be regained. Among the slums of London tho services warm the hearts of all who hear them. There is no choir or organ, and yet the people's hearts are full. " liow often do we see the congregation settle down to get through a service as quickly as possible! Surely you do not think for a moment that the parson does not know it. Of course he docs. I do not mean that you must all shout and sing, for some of you would be horribly out o:i tuii'i. It is not the noise we make, fur if I were to sing, the church would be empty in five minutes. It is the expression'of joy,, praise, and gladness that lilts the roof off," the venerable preacher said.