A BISHOP ON SENTIMENTAL HYMNS.

Motueka Star, Volume II, Issue 70, 15 April 1902, Page 4

A BISHOP ON SENTIMENTAL HYMNS.

[ The Bishop of Southampton has been delivering himself of some remarks on hymns-many of the most popular of which he condemns. A hymn, he says, which appeals to the emotions alone tends to foster that sentimentality which is one of the chief modern foes of true worship. 4 hymn ought to express either adorati6n, praise, prayer, self-abasement, the emotional express-' ion of some religious truth, or a stirring appeal to the will, a passionate, incentive to right action. Faber's Hack ! Hark !my Soul; angelic songs are the Bishop consiaers as a series of vague emotional ideas, or rather words skilfully disposed in pretty verses, with no real meaning or permanent influence ; and is, in his opinion, perhaps the most glaring instance of sentimentality to be found in church hymn books " Lead, kindly Light," almost perfect as an expression of the peculiar character and teraporaiy conditions of the writer, is condemmed by the Bishop as having no meaning, or at best but a sentimental meaning for the great majority of those who delighted to sing it. "O Paradise, O Paradise, " Tis weary waiting here," such words, adds the critic, are entirely out of place because most people ought not to feel them. They were not here to wait wearily for heaven, but to "rejoice evermore," "fervent in spirit, serving the Lord ;" and.the practical man of God declares that there is no reason why young people should be made to combine contrition with an insincere declaration that thev are " weary of earth." —Westminster" Budget.