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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIIL, Issue 212, 16 October 1878, Page 2

To tiie Editor op the ' Evening Mail.' Si'.t,— .On returning from a few days in the couutry, I find ths.t the very misleading letter from ' Nelson Citizen' in, your Journal has been unnoticed. As that letter is r s«mp]y a long personal attack upon myself, perinijt me a few Hues in reply. Kiudly point out to your amiable correspondent that personal abuse, though very easy, only shows the weakness of the cause it adopt 3. If my #npppents at the vestry meeting and the author fif fhis long tirade call themselves free citizens \. them to show that they can also permit \q Gt^ep ,1 little freedom of debate. To sU&e diteuis^on by abuse proves a, very poor case indeed. ' Tlvo yhoje question lies in a nutshell. Is the house of ijod to be .1 house of prayer or a, house op i^u^ical entercainment to please a few? 4- re P^PPP them and tbeir admirers to be driven 9utojt ti^ephurph of England into dissenting chapels? This is the simple question, and one' which is worth more diafiugajon than ruy personal merits or character! Jjrie^y I would say 1 have withdrawn notlunfj. The JHROyatjons

were admitted. I speak of facts and their tendencies and not of motives. My remarks, both oral and writteu have from the first been directed more to the ckoir than the Minister. See italics iv my letter. The innovations have been musical and not doctrinal. Those who are so angry thac at the meeting they met me with abuse, but nu argument, and now repeat the same in your columns, who can show no reiion fir a change, but talk freeiy of my personal character number a small body in a congregation of 300. This small body will, if permitted, drive both minister and congregation. Among these are (1) those who care simply for music, who look upon the choir as an orchestra and the congregation as an audience, and (2) those who are truly Ritualists and desire music only as an aid in the introduction of that deadly system. Wituess the remarks of the gentleman who preceded me at the meeting, his tenderness towards Rome, his approval of the hymn to the Virgin Mary, and his denunciation of my "bigoted Protestantism." These two parties in alliance delight to throw dust iv the eyes of others and divert attention from the really grave questions at issue by pretending that it is a personal question between me aud the Minister. This compact selfish alliance care for no arguments. They desire to appropriate AH Saints' Church to their own uses, and dislike me for interfering to claim it for the congregation. They reply to argument simply with abuse. To this selfish monopolizing body I feel it is useless to address a word. I have appealed in vain. To the minister and the rest of the congregation I say— this is not a personal, but a very grave religious question. Hymn? Ancieut and Modern is the representative book of Ritualism — ifc is their distinctive national flag. Will we admit it? Music — more music— new music— difficult music-— aro the steps by which a choir gradually monopolizes to itself the performance of that which should be the simple heartfelt service of the people. Shall we— minister and congregation— shall we permit it? JN T o one has shown any reason fora change. The present hyniu bookMercer's— is an admirable one. It is full of the best tunes of the most musical ;people in the world— the Germans. It is in the opinion of competent accomplished choir leaders the best congregational hymn book there is. It is in use throughout the diocese, and has been for fifteen years. Why have a change? Who is to pay for it? The Ritualistic hymn book, Ancient and Modern, is looked on with well grounded abhorrence by a large portion of the congregation. The Bishop, whose opinion is surely worth hearing, and whose character and conduct have fairly won him a high piace in the esteem and affection of all, strougly urges ou us as the warning of a private friend and on behalf of himself and family as frequent worshippers in Alt Saints not to make a change. So considerate, however, of the feelings of others is this Father in the Church that he has added au offer and said that if the minister nevertheless desires a change he is willing to aid him with 100 copies of a new hymn book which seems unobjectionable, and which contains many of the Ancient and Modern Hymns without the dangerous Romish ones, the hymnal companion to the Book of Common Prayer, and I, mainly to show that my feeling is against a system and not the minister, have offered, if Mr JSeicth uishei, to do the same as the' Bishop, though my own private opinion against any change remains the same .as ever. To those who desire Hymns Ancient and Modern simply and truly because they like some of the hymns in them, I appeal— Ist, not to force on me and those who think with me a book which in its entirely we view with abhorrence; 2nd, accept the compromise mentioned above offered by the Bishop and submitted to by me; 3rd, remember that I have only ventured to occupy the position I do a3 the representative of the poor, those who cannot easily be heard in behalf of their own thiuk wishes and wants, and that though they may think me (after 3 years) still new to the colony, Ritualism is not new to me. I have watched its progress and tactics for thirty years, since Pusey first began to publish his insidious poison in tract No. 9t), & c . When my anonymous assailant leaves the hedge from behind which he calls me " self-esteem-ing, unmanly, unmannerly, and ungenerous," when he is manly enough himself to write in his own name it will be quite tjujp enough for me to reply to his personal remarks. A newspaper is valuable and important for the discussion of public questions, but when it becomes the vehicle for anonymous correspondents to vent their personal spleen in epithets it entirely loses its position. I am, &c, E. S. ThojlaS. Nelson, October 15, 1575.