The Portage County Democrat. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1863-04-22
OLD HUN DRED.. :.

In rustic old church opposite, while we
write, a company Of worshippers are singing
| the old, old hymn, " Be thou, 0 God, exalted
high" The air is old, also ; the immortal
E" Old Hundred" t a-A'a
If it be true that Luther composed that
tune, and if the worship of immortals is car
ried on the wings Of angels to heaven, how
often has he heard the declaration !: "They
are singing 'Old Hundred now"
| The solemn strain carries us back TO the
time of the Reformers-Luther and his de-
voted band He, doubtless was the first to
strike the grand old chords in the public
sanctuary of his own Germany. From his
own stentoran lungs they rolled, vibrating
not through vaulted cathedral roof, but along
grander arch, the eternal heavens. He
wrought into each note his own sublime faith,
and stamped it with faiths Immortality
Hence it cannot die! Neither men nor an
gels will let it pass into oblivion.
! Can you find tomb in the land where
! sealed lips lie that have not sung that tune?
| If they were gray, old men, they heard or
sung '.Ofd Hundred" II they Were babes,
they smiled as their mothers rocked them to
sleep singing sold Hundred" Sinner and
4 saint have Joined with the endless congrega-
| ton, where It has, with and without the peal
! ing organ, sounded on sacred air. The dear
| little children, looking with wondering eyes
on this strange world, have lisped it. The
ilsweet young girl whose tombstone told OF
/ sixteen summers, she whose pure and inno-
cent face haunted you with its mild beauty,
loved ''Old Hundred and he sung it, clos
| ed her eyes, and seemed communing with the
angels, who were soon to claim here He
+ whose manhood was devoted to the service OF
his God, and who with faltering steps ascend
L AZ I. 4
over his laboring breast, loved -"Old Hun
dred." And though sometimes his lips only
moved, away down in his heart, SO soon to
cease its throbs, the holy melody was sound
ing The dear white headed father, with his
4 tremulous voice, how he loved Old Hum
.dred." Do you see him now, sitting in the
venerable arm chair, his arms crossed over the
! top of his cane, his silvery locks floating off
from his hollow temples, and tear perchance,
stealing down his furrowed cheeks as the no.
Bile strains ring out?l Do you hear that thin,
| quivering, faltering sound, now bursting forth,
now listened for, almost in vain? If you do
not, we do; and from such lips. hallowed by
fourscore years in the Masters cause, sold
Hundred +" sounds indeed sacred melody.
You may fill your churches with choirs,
with Sabbath prima donnas, whose daring
notes emulate the steeple, and cost almost as
| much. but give us the spirit-stirring tones Of
1.-THE Lutheran hymn, sung by young and old
together. Martyrs have hallowed it it has
gone up from the dying beds of saints. The
sold churches, where generation after genera
ton has worstipped, and where many scores
of the dear dead have been carried and laid
before the altar where they gave themselves
to God, seem to breathe of 'Old Hundred
from vestibule to tower top-the very air is
haunted with its spirit.
Think, for moment of that assembled
company who have, at different times and in
differnt5 places, joined in the familiar tune
Throng upon throng--the stern, the timid
the gentle, the brave, the beautiful, their rapi
faces all beaming with the inspiration of the
heavenly sounds - a hioi s7aso
/ sold Hundred !p King of the sacred band
of ancient airs. Never shall our ears grow
weary of hearing, or our tongues of singing
thee! And when we get to heaven, who
knows butwhat the first triunphal strain that
welcomes us may be--oz,ee5T a1 E.uoaT 81
I liz r thor % G od ex altel high - ~ a-i