Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1850-10-04
The Religious Uses of Music.
BY REV. E. L. MAGOON.

Music has uses, because it has power. What
ever is powerful may be made useful, and its
1t liv should be measured by its potency. By
his rule let us estimate the value of music, by
first examining its capacity to move.
The history Of mus C is as ancient as the use
Of metals. By the Mosaic narrative, that prim-
tive document Of III, human race, we learn
that the descendants Of Cain possessed BOTH
But bv the music of the Cainites. VIC are not
to understand our own more complicated and
sublime forms of melody. Although music was
frs, applied sometimes to magical. or rather to
medicinal purposes. yet its principal application
was TO divine uses All nations and sects have
been as unanimous in the religions use of mu-
sic as thev have been diversified ia their pccu-
liar ceremonals and ee1s. The greatest
conQncror in the holy nation did not only CON-
pose the words Of his divine odes, but gencr-
ally set them to music himself; and that which
he eonsecrated to the service OF the tabernacle
became national treasure, and the simulant
Of universal praise Even pagan poets intimate
how music should be up liet when they rep
resent the MUSES. as surrounding JuTiers, and
warbling their hymns about his throne. The
Holy Scriptures come to MS filled wih' psalms
and hymns, and spiritual songs" -Four thou
sand of the best musicians in the nation of the
Jews led in the solemn temple service. l'rael
mingled the symphonies of timbre and trlnm-
plant song with the murmuring of the sbsiding
pillows on the shore of that sea which had ust
swallowed their Egyptian foe.
David made his palace melodious with the
reve; berations of his ;mprial harp, Isaiah sang
the eleay of Jerusalem's destruction in tones
that went resonnding TO the skies and the i'm
nrisoned apostles, Paul and Silas, made the
jail vibrate to the glorious music which chains
could not bind nor midnight conceal. And
when God manifest in the flesh abolished the
ritual of dspensation which had mainly gone
to decay, he recognized and terminated tha
which was not divine, its music, and at the
point of transition from old to new, from obso.
Iete ceremony TO perpetual duty, he sung a
hymn and when he had gone to Gethsemanc,
70 Calvary, and to HEAVIER, he left the melody
of rapturous song to accompany, as it had com
menced, the dspensation of eternal life. In
strumental Accomplishments were invented to
aid the influence of voice and verse, and wher
all are united in holy league, there is nothing
earthly so effectually presents to our elevated
conceptions
"That undsturbed song OF pure consent,
Aye sung around the sapphire -colored throne,
To Him that S its thereon;
Their loud upllted angel trumpets blow;
And the cherubc hosts, in thousand choirs,
Touch their celestial harps OF golden wires"
The department of public worship, of which
we now speak, is in harmony with the mos
universal and pervading element in the phys
cal universe. Every ray Of light every par
ticle OF rain, snow or vapor every blade o
grass that grows; every leaf that expands
every rose that blooms The zcphyrs that fal
the gossamer, and the bolt that rives the mou
tain-crag ; fountains sparkling in the sun. AM
forests swaying before the storm the sighin!
reed and the heaving volcano the gleamin,
lake and the thunder of old oceans roar, ar
but different notes in The great anthem of Ma
ture which charms The ear Of God.
In the presence of its Creator, there is musi
in everything that moves and in eyerythin!
that grows. We read that the morning star
sang together, and all the sons Of God"-ib,
pro lucts of His creative power shouted 70
JOY 1t is the sublime expression of Eurpdes
the Grecian poet, thee | invoke, thou self
existent Being, who gave birth TO Nature, an,
whom light and darkness, and the whole trail
of globes aud planets, encirce with eterna
music" greater poet than he has added:
There's rot the smallest orb which thou beheld's
But III his motion, like an angel, sings,
Stlll quiring to the Ypnng-eyed cheIubm"
Architecture has been compared to " iroze
music, and even in such CONCEALED state
is glorious but in its more liquid form, musi
is beauty TO the ear, as beauty is music TO til
eye. When it is really well executed, ther
are no surer wings than seraphic sounds to if
the soul to heaven. Sounds closely resembl
feelings since both are invisible and sound
are the very element in which the feelings liv
and move. Hence, music easily enters the sea
OF feeling, and while we listen we become mt
lodions with inartculate rapture, and are born
on the stream of expressive harmony. Mus
the revelation of the alteration of heaven ar
why should it not form part Of the worship
the saints in this world.