Smyrna times., 1858-12-16
MIS- CELLAN ECU S.
Old Kundr I'd.

If 1t be true that Luther composed that tune
and IT the worship of morta 5 Is carried on the
wings of angels 10 Heaven, how often las he
heard the declaration" They are singing Old
Hundred now" The solemn strain Carries us
back to times of the reformers-- Luther and his
devoted band. lie doubtless was the first to
strike the grand old chords in the public sane
tuary of his own Germany. From his s;ento.
rlan lungs rolled, vibrating not through vaulted
cathedral root, but along a grandcr arch, the
eternal heavens. He wrought into each note
his own sublime faith, and stamped it with that
faiths Immortality. Hence it cannot lle.--
Neither men nor angels will let it pass into o.
llvion.
Can you find tomb in the land where sealed
lips lay, that have not sung that tune Ifthey
were gray old men, they had htlrd or sung
"Old Hundred" Ii they were babies, they
smiled as Their mother rocked them to sleep,
singing 'Old Hundred Sinner and sain. have
joined with endless congregation where it has.
with ard without the peallug organ, sounded on
the sacred air.
The dear little children, looking with won
derlng eyes on thus strange world, have lisped
[. The sweet young g.rI, whose tombstone
told of sixteen summers-She whose pure, in
nocent face haunted you with lis mild beauty
loved 'OId Hundred aud she sang ii, closed
her eyes, and seemed cornmunng with the an
gels who were soon TO claim 1t. He whose
manhood was devoted to the service of God,
and he who, with the white hand placed over
his laborlng breast loved odd Hundred ) and
| though sometimes his lips only move, way down
in his heart, so soon TO cease its throbs the
holy melody was sounding. The dear white
haired old father, with his tremulous voice,
how he loved Old Hundred Do you see him
| in ba Oh
hands crossed over the head Of his cane, his sill
very locks floating off from his haIlowed ten
! pies, and tears stealing down his care.wOrn,
furrowed checks, that thin, qulverlng, tal,erlne
sound, now bursting forth, now listening for in
vain! If you do not, we do; and from such
! lips, hallOwed by four score years service ln
| the masters cause, 'Oid Hundred sounds, in
deed, u sacred melody.
You may fill your choirs with sabbath prma
donnas, whose daring notes emulate the si3eple
and cost most as much-but give US the spirit
tones of the Lutheran hymn, sung by oil ant
young together. Martyrs have halowcd it
it has gone up from the bed of the saints. The
old churches, where generation after genera
tion have worshippcd, and where many score'
of the dear dead have been carried and laid be-
fere the altar, where they gave themselves to
God, seem to breathe of 'Old Hundred from
vestibule to tower top; the air is haunted will
its spirit.
Think a moment of the assembled company
who have at different times and in different pla.
ces joined in the familiar tune. TArong upon
throng-the strong, the timid, the gentle, the
brave, the beautiful, the rapt faces all beamine
with inspirations of the heavenly sounds.
'Old Hundred y king of the sacred band o
ancient airs! Never shall our ears grow
weary of hearing or our tongues of Staging
thee. And when we get TO Heaven, who know
f but what the first triumphal strains that wei
come US may be,
BE thou, o God ! exhalted Hight"