The Daily Telegraph FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 1881.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3035, 18 March 1881, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 1881.

At the recent session of the Presbyterian General Assemblyt.be Revd. David Sidey, we learn from a Wellington contemporary, delivered an address on the subject of" To what extent the Church miaM wisely adapt her services to the changesin public thought and sympathy." In referring to this lecture the New Zealand Times says :—" When a divine steps out of the ordinary course of conventionalism, and has the courage to express bis opinions untrammelled by rule of ghostly precedent, and undismayed by possibility of adverse criticism, ho acts c'aringly but wisely. Daringly, because having the temerity to hint at departure from venerable forms of belie?, or modes of faith, he instantly arouses the opposition of fellow clerics, with whom dogmatism in religious teaching, strict asperity ia upholding partisutar forms of worship, and, it may be, some slight arrogancy in their claims of sacerdotal superiority," are so deeply engrafted that it is like unto tearing the heart's cords asunder to touch them ever so tenderly. Wisely, because be keep 3 pace with the advance of modern thought, and the demands of the age to be freed from the last remaining shackles of theologie and doctrinal faction, and the embarrassments of contradictory modes of worship, and recognises culture as the chief band-maid of faith. In such a light the address delivered a few evening ago by the Revd. David Sidey, at St. John's Church, in Wellington becomes a subject of fair comment. Indeed with a few more such Davids in the field, the barrier between Press and Pulpit would fall, and vital religion would the better hold its own against the secular spirit of the age. Upholding in sincere conviction and honest allegiance the fundamental character of the services of the Church of which he is a worthy pillar, Mr Sidey maintains *' that there 19 large room for the observation of what is taking place among men, for the recognition of those changes which pass upon public sentiment through the culture of ages, and the expanding sympathies of men as they bear upon the accessories of worship." He rejoices in the fact that musical culture has passed onward from the household into the sanctuary, that the old and long enduring prejudice among his fellow religionists to a "Kist o' whustles," as an aid to devotional praise, has vanished, or lingers but in remote corners and among those who, in their narrow exclusiveness and self-righteousness, deem all things new an abomination aud vexation of .pirit. Venturing still further upon ground seldom trodden, tbe rev. speaker passed from the praises of the sanctuary to her prayers, and made what is nothing less than a daring proposal, such a one as would, not so long since, have placed him under the ban of Presbyterian excommunication. Tbe Rev. Mr Sidey upholds Baxter's ideal of a service which would leave the Minister free to use the liturgy, or lay it aside, as occasion prompted. He explained to bis auditory that " there has always been a few of the larger minds in the Presbyterian Church, like Thomas Chalmers and Charles Hodge, of Princeton, who would favor the provision of an optional liturgy, very much after Baxter's ideal." And he quotes from the writings of tbe Princeton divine in vhich he recommends that a book should be prepared from the prayers of Calvin, Knox, and the liturgies of the Reformed Churches in Europe, such book to " contain prayers for public worship, and forms for the administration of the Bacraments, marriages, and funerals" as being of the very greatest advantage.