Produced by Al Haines [Illustration: Cover art] [Frontispiece: ...stood with arms interlocked and heads touching as their voices soared in the grand finale.] _The Baritone's Parish_ _or_ "_All Things to all Men_" _By_ _James M. Ludlow_ _Fleming H. Revell Company_ _New York Chicago Toronto_ _MDCCCXCVI_ Copyright, 1896, by FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY. BOOKS BY JAMES M. LUDLOW, D.D., Litt.D. THE CAPTAIN OF THE JANIZARIES. A Story of the Times of Scanderbey, and the Fall of Constantinople. A KING OF TYRE. Contrasted Scenes of Jewish and Phoenician Life, 400 B.C., woven into romance. THAT ANGELIC WOMAN. A Story from High Life To-day. A MAN FOR 'A THAT; OR, "MY SAINT JOHN." A Story of City Life among the Lowly. THE AGE OF THE CRUSADES. Life in the XI. and XII. Centuries. _In preparation_. THE BARITONE'S PARISH; OR, "ALL THINGS TO ALL MEN" The pulpit and the choir gallery are closely related in our city churches. It is, however, a sad fact that the "sons of the prophets" and the "sons of Korah" usually know but little of one another; and this is to the loss of both. To the musicians the minister often seems a recluse, and the clergyman comes to look upon his choir as a band of itinerant minstrels. It is therefore very refreshing to note that between the pastor of St. Philemon's, the Rev. Dr. Wesley Knox, and Mr. Philip Vox, there sprang up an intimacy almost from the day when the new baritone sang his first solo. It was Shelley's "Resurrection," which had been rendered as an offertory after one of the doctor's finest efforts at an Easter sermon. Deacon Brisk, the chairman of the music committee, met the preacher at the chancel-rail within fifteen seconds after the benediction had been pronounced; before the sexton could deliver a message that a parishioner was in momentary expectation of death, and required the pastor's immediate attendance; before Lawyer Codey had adjusted his silk hat like a falcon on his wrist preparatory to his stately march down the middle aisle; and even before the soprano had adjusted her handsome face and bonnet over the front of the choir gallery to inspect the passers-out. Deacon Brisk was like most music committee-men in that he knew little about the musical art; but he was a hustler in getting the worth of his money in whatever job he undertook. Rubbing his hands in self-congratulation upon the new baritone's engagement, he delivered himself of a panegyric which he had spent the time of the closing prayer in composing: "I tell you, doctor, Vox was a catch. Why, he sang "'In slumber lay the brooding world Upon that glorious night,' so sweetly that you could almost hear the stars twinkle through the music; and when he struck "'Let heaven's vaulted arches ring,'