SICKLY HYMN TUNES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 281, 28 November 1932, Page 2

SICKLY HYMN TUNES

. ARCHBISHOP SPEAKS OUT f “WOULD NOT BOUSE FLEAS.” PRESENT-DAY WORSHIP. ; A strong denunciation of certafa . types of music used in tho churches of to-day, with particular reference to i what he characterised as “sickly senti- | mental” hymn tunes, was mad 0 at St. I John’s Church, Woolston, Sunday week, J by Archbishop Julius, in a sermon connected with the church’s anniversary celebrations. He stated that there was a notable lack of virility in modern 1 church worship, and ap'pealcd for a stronger and more manly outlook in the pursuance) of religious observance. “There has been a very real, subtle, and significant change in the church,” said Archbishop Julius. In the old days people »'tl ended services under the worst of weather and transport conditions. To-day a cold wind keeps us away. We are a soft crowd. A puddle upsets us or we upset it! lam i not saying that they were saints in the old days and that we are sinners, for there were faults then just as there are now. But there has been a great change in the tone of worship. In the early days we did not mind if the Psalms were full of damnation. In 1932 our hymns are as flabby as the tail of a fish—full of pretty, sickly-sweet sentimentality, like the stuff we have just been singing! “Nice, Cosy and Pleasant.” “The soldiers, men who faced the devil and his works, will choose appallingly soft hymns and sing them with apparent enjoyment. Some of them must have been written in a feather bod while the composer was asleep, for they are so pale and insignificant that they would not rouse a flea! Our sermons, too —and I speak generally—would not disturb anybody. Everybody is nice, cosy and pleasant. And yet there arc many men of vigour and virility in the outside world, and it is only when they come into church that they seem to lose tho strength of worship. 1 Indeed, we use our church as a kind of opium den, in which a wife can forget a husband’s bad temper and a husband his wife’s long tongue. Wo are full of the things that do not matter a scrap to anyone. An Appeal to the Strong. “Wo fail to reach the hearts of men with thr s puny type of worship, and wo forget that the God of Nature, who sacrificed Himself for the good of the world, is not the God of our hymns. The real teaching of the Lord appeals to strong men and women, and yet I can hardly imagine a man dying for his religion to-day. How many of you, if any good would come of it, would lie out in Ferry Road all night? You must remember that I am not talking about individuals, but about a general tendency. Our people of to-day are just as virile as they were in the days gone by. I do not want to discourage you, but rather to bring men and women to see that the Word and Gospel of Christ represent great and divine power and not weakness.’ ’ The services of the old days were just the same as those of to-day, continued tho archbishop. There might have been a little less music and they might have been a good deal longer, but he did not think that the present generation would sit them out. However, h c said, the people of the Woolston district were the descendants of good stock, ready to take their part in daily life, and they wore rejoicing in their anniversary celebrations.