Of course I need n't explain that it is the thirteenth century ecclesiastic Gothic that is epidemic in this country; and I think it has attacked the Congregational and the other non-ritual churches more violently than any others.We have had it here in its most beautiful and dangerous forms.I believe we are pretty much all of us supplied with a Gothic church now.Such has been the enthusiasm in this devout direction, that I should not be surprised to see our rich private citizens putting up Gothic churches for their individual amusement and sanctification.As the day will probably come when every man in Hartford will live in his own mammoth, five-story granite insurance building, it may not be unreasonable to expect that every man will sport his own Gothic church.It is beginning to be discovered that the Gothic sort of church edifice is fatal to the Congregational style of worship that has been prevalent here in New England; but it will do nicely (as they say in Boston) for private devotion.
There isn't a finer or purer church than ours any where, inside and outside Gothic to the last.The elevation of the nave gives it even that "high-shouldered" appearance which seemed more than anything else to impress Mr.Hawthorne in the cathedral at Amiens.I fancy that for genuine high-shoulderness we are not exceeded by any church in the city.Our chapel in the rear is as Gothic as the rest of it,--a beautiful little edifice.The committee forgot to make any more provision for ventilating that than the church, and it takes a pretty well-seasoned Christian to stay in it long at a time.The Sunday-school is held there, and it is thought to be best to accustom the children to bad air before they go into the church.The poor little dears shouldn't have the wickedness and impurity of this world break on them too suddenly.If the stranger noticed any lack about our church, it would be that of a spire.There is a place for one;indeed, it was begun, and then the builders seem to have stopped, with the notion that it would grow itself from such a good root.It is a mistake however, to suppose that we do not know that the church has what the profane here call a "stump-tail" appearance.But the profane are as ignorant of history as they are of true Gothic.All the Old World cathedrals were the work of centuries.That at Milan is scarcely finished yet; the unfinished spires of the Cologne cathedral are one of the best-known features of it.I doubt if it would be in the Gothic spirit to finish a church at once.We can tell cavilers that we shall have a spire at the proper time, and not a minute before.It may depend a little upon what the Baptists do, who are to build near us.I, for one, think we had better wait and see how high the Baptist spire is before we run ours up.The church is everything that could be desired inside.There is the nave, with its lofty and beautiful arched ceiling; there are the side aisles, and two elegant rows of stone pillars, stained so as to be a perfect imitation of stucco; there is the apse, with its stained glass and exquisite lines; and there is an organ-loft over the front entrance, with a rose window.Nothing was wanting, so far as we could see, except that we should adapt ourselves to the circumstances; and that we have been trying to do ever since.It may be well to relate how we do it, for the benefit of other inchoate Goths.
It was found that if we put up the organ in the loft, it would hide the beautiful rose window.Besides, we wanted congregational sing-ing, and if we hired a choir, and hung it up there under the roof, like a cage of birds, we should not have congregational singing.We therefore left the organ-loft vacant, making no further use of it than to satisfy our Gothic cravings.As for choir,--several of the singers of the church volunteered to sit together in the front side-seats, and as there was no place for an organ, they gallantly rallied round a melodeon,--or perhaps it is a cabinet organ,--a charming instrument, and, as everybody knows, entirely in keeping with the pillars, arches, and great spaces of a real Gothic edifice.
It is the union of simplicity with grandeur, for which we have all been looking.I need not say to those who have ever heard a melodeon, that there is nothing like it.It is rare, even in the finest churches on the Continent.And we had congregational singing.
And it went very well indeed.One of the advantages of pure congregational singing, is that you can join in the singing whether you have a voice or not.The disadvantage is, that your neighbor can do the same.It is strange what an uncommonly poor lot of voices there is, even among good people.But we enjoy it.If you do not enjoy it, you can change your seat until you get among a good lot.