The Literary echo, and Pawcatuck advertiser. [volume] (Westerly, R.I.) 1851-1854, 1854-02-09

alterations--and ue never hear them
sung but the image of the poor, forlorn,
rejected lover rises before us.
Take, again this hymn-a very popular
one-to be found in many collections
now in use -
There is fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Immanuels veins
And sinners, plunged beneath the food,
Lose all their guilty stains.
The dying thief rejoiced to see
That fountain, in his day;
And there may l, as vile as he,
Wash all my sins away.
o dying Lamb, thy precious blood
Shall never lose its power,
Till all the ransomed church of God
Be saved, to sin no more.
Fer since. by faith, saw the stream
Thy flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be, till die
Then in a nobler, sweeter song,
I'll sing thy power to save,
When this poor, lisping, stammering tongue
Lies silent in the grave,
The sentiment Of this hymn may be
very good and all that, but who wrote
it ? A man who had become wearied of
life, and who went out to the river with
the deliberate determination of I" plung-
ing beneath the food" and ending his
days; but when he came to the bank of
the stream his courage failed him, and
while sitting down to "screw up his
courage to the sticking point" composed
that hymn; suggested probably by the
food before him. An interesting frame
Of mind he must have been in to com
pose language to be used by those who
worship One fearful in praises"--a
man with murder in his heart, but too
much Of coward too execute it. Ol
course we do not object to the use Of
spiritual songs and hymns in religious
worship, but unless they can be charac'
terized by greater amount Of dignity
than many Of them are, we think it
would be more in keeping with the fit
ness Of things to sing-or chant-the
Psalms, in imitation Of the usage Of the
primitive Christian Church.
|
We beg also to enter our protest
against the very fashionable manner OF
praising God by proxy. "Let the peo-
pie praise thee, o God; yea, let all the
people praise thee" is read from the
pulpit, and a select choir of trained
singers respond, "yea, let all the people
praise thee" while all the people, are
complacently listening to the music, re-
gardless Of the words, or gazing around
to see how their neighbors arc dressed
having implicit confidence in the ability
of their representatives, in the gallery
to " execute" this part of the "per-
formance" in very sklllful and strictly
artistic manner. There is a something
gratifying to the ear in the scientific
performance Of piece Of music by q
chair Of some dozen or twenty we'll
trained singers but there is something
grand, sublime, soul-iuspiring, in con
gregation of two or three hundred join
lug in one Of the good old fashione,
tunes, such as a" Dundee" Old Hun
dred," and fyrty others, which have j,
them more real melody than all the ney
tangled tunes that can be raked to
getber
And, now, while we are about it, pei
haps we may as well say that we reall
. do not see the necessity of the practic
D of the minister rea ing the hymn fror
the desk before it is sung. 1t is doubt
less usage which was practised whe
books were scarce and so costly tha
many we're unable to provide them
selves with copy aud therefore it bt
came necessary for the hymn to
/" "lined"; but now, when books arc (
easily obtained it seems to us the Gu
tom might be very consistently di
pensed with. We see no more necess
ty for the hymn to be read before it
sung than We do for tho minister to te