Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1863-02-20
.OLD HUNDRED.,

In rustic old church opposite, while we
write company Of worshipperS are singing
the old, old hymn, :" Be thou, o God, exalted
high" The air is old, also; the INN oItal
"Old Hundred"
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 Reformcrs-Luther and his de-
voted band. He, doubtless, was the first to
strike the grand old chords of the public
sanctuary Of his own Germany. From his
own stentorlan lungs they rolled, vibrating
not through vaulted cathedral roof, but along
a grander arch, the eternal heavens. He
wrought into each note his own sublime faith,
and stamped itwith that 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 lay that have not sung that tune !?
If they were gray old luen they had heard or
sung Old Hundred" If they were babes,
they smiled Us their mothers rocked them to
sleep singing "Old Hundred" Sinners and
saints have joined with the endless congrc-
CATION where it has, without the pealing organ
sounded on sacred air. The dear little chill
drcn, looking with wondering eyes on this
strange world, have lsped it. The sweet
young girl whose tombstone told of sixteen
summers, she whose pure and innocent face
haunted you with its mild beauty, loved
"Old Hundred" and as she sung it, closed
her eyes, and seemed communing with IN
gels who were soon to claim her. he whose
manhood was devoted to the service of his
God, and who with faltering steps ascended
the pulpit stairs with white hand placed over
his laboring breast, loved "Old Hundred"
And though sometimes his lips only moved,
away down in his heart, so soon to cease its
throbs, the holy melody was sounding. The
dear white headed father, with his tremulouS
voice, how he loved "Old Hundred" DO
you see him now, sitting in the venerable
arm chair, his arms crossed over the top OF
his cane, his siIve,y locks floating off from
his hollow temples, and tear, perchance,
stealing down his furrowed cheeks, as the
noble strains ring cut? DO you hear that
thin, quivcring, faltcriEg sound, now bursting
forth, now listened for, almost in vain? Ii
you do not. we do; and from such lips, hal
lowed by fourscore years in the Masters
cause, "Old Hundred sounds indeed sa-
Cieu Wctouy,
oumay fill your churches with choirs, with
Sabbathprima donnas, whose daring notes eu, i.
ulste the steeplc and cost almost as much, but
give US the spirit stirring tones of the Lu
theran hymn, sung by young and old alto
gether. Martyrs have hallowed it it has
gone up from the dying bed of saints The
old churches where generations after genera
tons has worshiped, 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
haunteo with is spirit .a|
Think for a moment, of the assembled COM
pany who have, at different times and differ
ent places, joined in the familiar tune -
Throng upon throng--the stern, the tmid,
the gentle, the brave, the beautiful, their rapt
faces all beaming with the inspiration of the
heavenly sounds " ~ ns
"Old Hundred" king Of the sacred band
ofancient airs. Never shall our cars grow
weary of hearing, or our tongues of singing
thee! And when we get to Heaven, who
knows but what the first triumphant strain
that welcomes us may be-
- De thsu, o God, exalted high! ?"