Both the Advertiser and the Rugby Gazette reported the words of the sermon at the 1875 festival.
The Rev. Frederick Simcox Lea, M.A., Rector of Tedstone-de-la-Mere, Herefordshire, preached the sermon at the 1875 Festival of Choirs, taking for his text the words-“How shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen at the giving of thanks.” I. Cor.,ch. xiv.,v. 16.
The preacher said that as an instance of the due ordering of public worship in an age of the Kingdom of God now long gone by, these words of the Apostle stand out very prominently.
There are in the present day too many needless controversies raised around and about eucharistic words and works the end and aim of which is to teach and instruct the unlearned to take an intelligent part in the services of the Church. St. Paul would seem to have laid down two broad rules-the one that every worshipper should join heartily in the saying of “Amen”: the other, that those who have the care of public worship see to it that he who occupied the place of the unlearned could take a part, an intelligent part therein. And it is to this end that this great movement of the present day is being made, and made so successfully and encouragingly. The deep, dull, often cold and lifeless, services of a past generation, have now happily passed, or nearly passed away, and, instead, a bright hearty and intelligible rendering of the services of the Church was now the rule. The question was now not to go to Conventicle, not to go to mass, but to come to Church. It was strange and sad to think that at one time, not so long ago, the voice of joy and praise, as far at least as musical expression was concerned, had almost completely died out.
In one important parish in this diocese that portion of the Service was almost wholly represented by one aged man, the clerk, whose voice was often alone in the Psalms, and also in the hymns at the end of the Prayer Book. We of the present day can also look back-not without a sort of regret-to the bands of village singers and instrumentalists, whose efforts although praiseworthy, nevertheless would occasionally call up smiles. They are now gone, supplanted by a more educated musical taste, if not more fervour -the music of a thankful heart, which after all should always be the end and aim of everyone, and is the only character worth winning.
To this most desirable end, of making the Services of our Church brighter, more praise-like, the plan of replacing the old exclusive high pews with more modern seats, had conduced in a very great degree, and also the substitution of a more suitable class of hymns for the old collections once so extensively used. On such occasions as the present it is allowable to pause and consider the contrast presented by the two periods already referred to. But at the same time it is needful to remember that there is a tendency in ceremony or form or order to harden itself into a dry shell, and to fall into the grievous error of putting the letter for the spirit. It is not that is wanted, nay rather this is to be the most emphatically guarded against, or else how shall he that occupieth the place of the unlearned be edified.
It is necessary to pray for the constant outpouring of the Holy Spirit that the letter and the spirit, the form and the substance, may go together. And to this end it is needful that the outward signs of indifference be vigilantly guarded against. Whispered consultations, hurried turning-over of music-books, and similar distracting actions,-not unknown in westward organ-galleries, or eastward choirs should by all means be avoided or done as little as possible, rather let minor matters take their chance; reverence and devotion amongst those who minister will call forth corresponding feeling amongst those who worship in the congregation. And it should also be kept in remembrance that it is not alone our own tastes which should be consulted in the regulation of public worship, whether of clergy ministering, or choir singing, or congregation worshipping, but the whole body must continually be in our thoughts, or else there will be no benefit to the unlearned.
An unlearned man had said “I cannot go to that Church again; they have the prayers in Latin.” That expression was not the result of wilful ignorance, as the man had been really unable to make out what had been said and sung; and therefore it was so absolutely necessary to attend scrupulously to the injunction which was so frequently made to the members of this Association, that every word, and every syllable, should be rendered very distinctly-not alone for the music’s sake, but for that higher motive the edification of the unlearned. And to those who were so fortunate as to possess musical gifts, it behoved them to use them to the utmost of their power, to the glory of our one Lord, for Him and His church, as living members of one body; ever remembering that the unlearned are as dear to our Lord as any in His kingdom; and striving to work while it is yet day, hoping and striving to attain to the bliss and rest of Paradise, amongst the assembled choirs of the redeemed in the presence of God.
The Advertiser also published a correction in the following issue.
CHURCH LAWFORD. ERRATUM.-In our report of the Choral Festival held last week at Church Lawford, the passage quoted from the sermon—“The question was now not to go to Conventicle, not to go to Mass, but to come to Church,”-should have been printed as follows :-(the reference had been to a former age when it had seemed of no pressing care whether The unlearned” worshipped or not) “Or, if it was held to be of any moment, the question of concern was rather that he should not go to the Conventicle, or that he should not go to Mass, than that he should come to Church.”