The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-10-17 00:00:00

THE BISHOP OF LONDON ON THE
USE OF MUSIC.

On Sunday afternoon the Bishop of London preached
a special sermon on the use of music to a crowded con-
gregation, composed chiefly of youths belonging to
drum and fife bands, at Christ Church, Watney-
street, Commercial-road, the occasion being the annual
demonstration of the drum and fife bands of East
London. The bands taking part in the demonstration
are connected with East-end churches and missions,
and several of them owe their existence to the energy
of the Rev. A. Osborne Jay, M.A., Curate of Stepney.
The movement has been very successful, not simply
as a means of getting the limited number of lads
belonging to the bands to attend places of worship,
but also a considerable number of their companions.
As Mr. Jay very truly puts it, a clergyman may
preach with the eloquence of a Chrysost,,m, and ad-
vertise himself with the persistency of a Barnum,
any yet be no nearer to the youthful males of his
flock than he would before he started, but the attrac-
tions of a band bring a great number of lads within
his grasp, and he is able to induce a considerable
portion of them to attend Bible classes, social meet-
ings, night schools, &c., and so influence them for good.
Something like 700 lads, all in bright uniforms, took
part in Sunday's demonstration. They marched from
their respective districts, playisg sacred music, and
assembled at the church at about three o'clock. A
short service was gone through, the prayers being read
by the Rev. Osborne Jay, and the lesson by the Rev.
W. P. Jay (vicar). The Bishop of London based his
sermon on the 30th verse, chapter 36, of the Gospel
of St. Matthew, "And when they had sung an hymn
they went out into the Mount of Olives." His lord-
ship said this was one of the most important lessons
taught us by the incarnation of the Lord. It told
us that everything in human nature except sin was
capable of being consecrated to God's service. There
was nothing appertaining to man but sin which the
Lord did not take unto Himself when He took
our humanity. The labouring man who worked
with his hands was ever suppacted by the
knowledge that Christ was once a carpenter
working in a common carpenter's shop. Then our
social life was blessed by the fact that when Christ
was on earth He joined in the society of other men,
and took part in the ordinary enjoyments of social
intercourse. All this was comforting to Christians,
because it made them feel that all innocent pleasure
had been inherited from God. There was nothing in
our humatay, however low it might seem, which was
to be despised. These remarks, the bishop observed,
were necessary as a preface to what he had to say on
the special object which had brought them together.
Christ used music at the most solemn time of His
life, when His heart was overflowing with pity and
love for His fellow-men. At this awful time, when
in the very presence of death, He joined His disciples
in singing a hymn, and so consecrated the commonest
of all human arts to Divine worship. If, therefore, in
the moment of agony and sorrow the Lord did not
disdain to use music in the worship of His father,
could there be conceived a greater consecration of the
whole art, or a more glorious proof that He blessed
and sanctified all the faculties of the soul
which were used in worship? Of course, the
use of music was not confined to such pur-
poses any more than the other faculties used
in Divine wcrship. Music could not only be
used for the highest purposes, but could be
degraded to the very lowest. It could lift up the
soul to God, and it could also debase the man to a
level below that of the besst. In this respect it was
like all human powers and human characteristics,
but although it had this double capacity there was
the fact that Christ deigned to use it. To use it for
the worship of God there was the indispensable con-
dition that the heart and zeal of the performer must
be given to God. Music could reads the depths of
a man's heart as no sermon could, hut it was observ-
able sometimes that the singers and players of sacred
music were performing more for their own vanity
than the glory of God, and he could not think of a
sadder spectacle than that. Whilst he desired to
point out that it was not only for worship that music
was given us, he desired to impress upon them that
the person who used his musical faculties for singing
ribald songs, for the purpose of exciting indecent
laughter, was indeed degraded, for he was sacrificing
to the lowest uses that which God gave him for the
highest. In conclusion, his lordship appealed to his
hearers to remember when they were playing sacreid
music they were playing to God, and that their
hearts should be in their work. The service closed
with the hymn commencing "For thee, 0 dear, dear
country.' .