The Morning herald., 1878-09-09
BROTHER MANN,s CHOIR.

The members OF the Union NJ. Il. Church
choir always stick by each other. When
there is any talk rejecting upon the vocal
powers of one of them the rest take up for
the talked about one, and months ago when
some parties found fault with the 0rganist,
who by the way is an accomplis he'd per-
former. The choir supported her and
would not sing breath till the persons do
ing kept quiet. Now a new difficulty pre-
sents itself, and instead of q member of the
congregation being angry, It's the parson::
The whole trouble lies IN the presence OF
two masters, viz: The Trustees and Rev.
sing in conjunction with the congregation
while 1t seems that the Trustees desire dif-
erently, and the members of the choir Te
on the side of the Trustees, and have quit
singing for Sunday or two past. It Is
but matter of certainty that the choir will .
either carry the point, ias they have done
before, or not sing again. La, ~, i,,...es
Whe Bro. Mann gets outdone BY any per-
son, place, or thug, he makes it point to
preach sermon about It, and last night,
true to his custom, he devoted just fifty
minutes to the choir. '''Y 60 ''i' ~
After the reading of the lesson the con-
gregation-and not the choir-sang . hymn
commencing:
r-t.H "Awake to sing the song, '25i9A 81
or Moses and the lamb" ~ g..gs.lg
And then Mr.. Mann preached from this
text: "And when they ha1 sung q hymn
they went out into the Mount of Olives" 4
I am here to talk, said he, about singing
as part Of the worship of God. I shall
simply give, in a brief way my ideas of
what singing should consist. Music is the I
oldest of the fine arts, and is known to all
nations. A man who has no music IN his
soul cannot sing, but no one but q bad man
can hate music. Charles Wesley made .
wise remark when he said all cheerful
tunes should not be handed to the devil but
that some should be sung in church. For
my part don't want dead march music
till am dead.
Hymns should be Of sound doctrine and
should be based upon the word of God, be-
cause it is easier to sing error Into the,
people than it is to preach 1t out. A hymn
should also BIZ decsntly and chastely COM
posed, and not simply rhyme and Jingle at
at the ends of the lines. Again. hymns,
should always be appropriate to the occa-
sion. was at Love-teast when everybody
was happy but oue man, and he commenced,
| to sing: "What peace l hope / once en-
joyed," which completely chilled tho meet
ing. '.S'Hn eh' '
| In the Bible we are taught to-
sing with the spirit which means to sing
with all our souls. People should also
sing with understanding. remember, see-
ing a crowd of brethren around, the altar
| once where men were seeking God and sud
denly some one started up, ~ NJ -SN. V'o
stAnd If my soul was sent to helhsrd
could not think that God did we'll"
There is religion in song and to be- profits
able it must be gotten out. ! eDt.t VI
| Another question is, who snail, do the
singing, the choir or congregation. If the
choir will sing with the congregation then
Ill have the choir. / am not prejudiced or
bgoted and If we can have tunelul voices In
the choir who love God and who will sing
right then I want it to sing. A choir
should sing under all circup stances,
but who ever heard of one ever
being at religious ri viyal? Now We have
three or four voices In our choir that are
unsurpassed in Wilmington but they will
not sing at prayer or protracted meeting, A
religious person will not do SO. The chief
objection is that the choir will not sing
what the people know or e'sen sing such
such music as the coDgreg atiou cannot
learn. Hence we have three or tour voices
doing all the singing aud the .congfegation
silent which takes all the os spirit % 9pt tH5o'f Of p
meeting.
Brother Mann here related % fable about
blackbirds who hired, bulltuckers to do
their singing and at least became, dissatis-
fed and did away with them: That Is the
way, he went on, with the church; CHI that
God would bring US back to tho geod, old
days of congregational singing. Mostly our
choir sings we'll and makes good selections
and Ii It's members see fit to lead US 10 song
shall be happy, thank them for what
they have done and hope they will return
and do better. ~ - 3 ,5Ipg O., 'tt'Ha
At the conclusion Of his sermon Mr..
! Mann said that the committee on music,
! consisting of Messrs. Pickles, Gibson and
him self would meet at the passage mex
Wednesday evening.