CHURCH HYMNS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19878, 20 February 1920, Page 4

CHURCH HYMNS.

BISHOP LONG’S CRITICISM.

THE AUSTRALIAN SUNDAY.

[From Opr Coßßr.spoKDEvr.]

fvi DNr.Y, February 9

Even people who are pot to bo counter] as churchgoers pricked up their ears the other day when they read of- an Anglican Bishop talking in a. very frank and critical way at a. Synod meeting of tho time being ripo for jettisoning some of tho '‘rubbish in the hymn-book.'' Among that section of the community which attends church regularly the Bishop’s observations created .something like consternation. Though many such people have for a long time boon conscious thin some of the hymns sung by all sects and denominations are somewhat stupid, they ha ve not grown accustomed to hearing them contemptuously spoken about. The Bishop was Bilhop Long, of Bathurst. Ju his address hj? referred lo hymns of which the principal characteristic was a “sickening sentimentality.'' Having spoken in these general terms, he a day or two later in an interview came down from tho general to tho particular, and gave point to his remarks by criticism in detail.

From this it appears that Bishop Long desires to be understood ns making 'a plea for reality and sincerity in public worship and to ho protesting against tho lack of poetical value and literary quality in a vast number of tho hymns included in current collections. “Wo may call them verso, I suppose,” he said, “because they are chopped up into so many foot per lino, and thov generally .achieve a, rhymed ending after much grief and pain. But they arc drearily dull. The highest emotion of tho human soul needs a more nohlo vehicle of expression if we are to have reality in worship. I take strong exception to congregations indulging themselves in hymns which make the individual and his whimsies the central theme instead of God. There arc many such hymns, and they are utterly mireal oh the lips of a lusty, rigorous congregation.

“ For instance, take such a hymn ns ‘I was a Wandering Shoop.' In ench of the sixteen lines we are expected to say * I,' 'I, 1 M ’ —ond each reiterated personal pronoun is assumed, to bo true alike of the hundreds of people who may bo joining in the hymn. How often by this form of subjectivism in congregational singing do we impose the alternative of shut lips or dishonest speech? In another hymn wo say ‘Head to the world, we dream no more of earthly pleasures . now. . . In another, ‘ Earth is a Desert. Drear. • • •’ the Psalmist wrote ‘Tho earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof, tho world and they that, dwell therein.’ ”

.Many must have shared my o.xperience,added Bishop Long, “of hearing a congregation sing

Take, my silver and my gold, Not a mite would I withhold—

and hare felt that the unreality was very ternblo. Again

Tho rich, man at his castle, The poor may., at his gate. God made them high and lowly, And ordered their estate,

which I am certain is not Christian doctrine but merely a buttressing of feudalism. Further, what is tho use of disparaging the. life God has given us here by singing 'O Paradise, 0 Paradise, 'us weary waiting here,’ or ‘ Earth is this land of sin and woe.’

“We need strength, majesty, nobility and reality in our hymn;— to recover the spirit, of the great hymnologists of the Ambrosian age. Noble hymns of service that will lead on the new spirit of the age are required—hymns with the i power, passion and poetry of the Battle Song of the Republic—are needed by us to-day. And that We may hymn tho greatness and the gladness of co-operation ; with God we must escape from expressing an exaggerated, ascetic contempt of earth and human life- Rehgion is eager and joyous, impelling to great tasks and reaching splendid opportunities, but that side of it is most inadequately served in our hvnm books.”

Ono cannot even conjecture whether there is any feeling on this matter in New Zealand, but whatever the position may be readers of the “ Lyttelton limes” may be interested in the mind of one of tiio best-known Australian bishops* At the meeting to which Bishop Long spoke first of his objection to certain hymns there was an interesting and illuminating discussion on another subject which crons up in Australia as regular la* as the seasons change. This is the observation of Sunday. Now upon this question it is clear that at least a proportion of the clergy recognise the expediency of changing thcTr attitude. There is a very ?,oud reason in that the community is slipping away from them—that Austra,ha is a country m which it is impossible to hone for any general acceptance of British doctrines about the manner m which the community should comport itself on the Sabbath.' At the Bathurst Synod a numljer ot clergymen insisted that a mistake was heingmade m trying to maintain an attitude’which could not ho defended—that while the secularisation of the Sunday should bo opposed it was absurd to hold that simple amusements and relaxation on Sunday ought to continue under a ban i for one,” said a well-known clergyman. “cannot tell a man who plays tennis on Sunday after going to church that he is doing wrong.” Tho general tono of the discussion was ono of agreement with tins, There was revealed, in short., a readiness to adjust the. view of tho Church to that entertained by an enormous proportion of tho community.

The discussion was, of course, followmi by an outburst from the rigid Sabbatarians, but it was noticeable, after the, adjectives had been eliminated from their protestations, that little, if anything, remained but protection

against “holding sports on Sundays” or “ introduction of the Cowtinlental Sunday,” or “ forcing people to work on the day of rest,” nil of which scorns perilously like mere sound and fury. No one has asked for a Continental Sunday. What the clergy at Bathurst had discussed, was the Australian Sunday. A l , hat people by the thousand are curious to know is whether the clergy in this country are going to persist in their attitude of intolerance for any tiling which suggests departure from the gloomy, futile institution known as tho British Sunday. Taking the clergy generally, it may ho said with somb confidence that they are ready to either make, the best of a had job or sec tho unreasonableness of conservatism. Rrery yertr it becomes more obvious that the existence of Sunday on tho lines imagined by the Sabbatarians is a more figment of the imagination. Tho old-timo Sunday lias simply passed away. The completeness of its passing was impressed upon tho writer yesterday very emphatically. I had' occasion to make a rather extended tour of tho metropolitan area and outer suburbs, including several popular seaside resorts. In every direction crowds of people were to he seen enjoying themselves out of doors—bathing, boating, fishing, motoring and so on. Nor were they small crowds. They were crowds running into many thousands. Indeed, it would ho no exaggeration to say that 100,000 people wore bathing in the surf near Sydney on Sunday. The trams were packed ; ferrv boats were loaded to the utmost. _ I lost count of the number of tennis courts I passed on which games were being played. In tho open spaces youngsters playing cricket were ns plentiful as blackberries. Tu every direction motor-cars were speeding along, not one or two at a time, but in streams. Tlio time may ho distant when we will go in for organised sports .meetings on Sundays. I express no opinion on that point. Hut tho time is here when it can be said that spending Sunday at home or going to church has for ihc greater part of the population become an obsolete practice. The will is to do a, holt to distant resorts on Saturdays per motor-car and play golf, or bathe or simply rusticate. Tho common lot of men hie forth in the morning and sky abroad until evening. The climate is a perpetual incitement to people to seek the open a.ir. The Australian Sunday is, after nil, tho product of environment. It Ims como to stay.