Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1880-03-06
8UMORs OF CONGREGATIONAL
- RTN(IYKG.
bradford Obseryer.1


Years ago some OF the incidents arising out
of the slovenly and ignorant manner In which
the congregational singing" was managed was
laughing. / remember being asked one fine
Sunday morning to assist at village sunday
school. The superintendent" was gardener,
and the way In which he read out one of DR..
Watts "Div1ne and Moral Songs for the chill
dren to sing was very droll-the separation OF
"verses" OF four Inns into couplets of two, with.
out reference to the context, making the great
est possible nonsense OF some. One occurs to
me now, which made me smile aloud. Fancy
the following read gravely, as though 1t were
complete sentence:
Birds in their little nests agree
And tbs shameful sight!
But on the same day, when we attended the
esyss n ane s
God Is His own interpreter,
And He will make 1t plain.
read the first line!
taod is His own intrunlpeter!
Sometimes even in the Established Church. the
IGNORANCE of the clerk gave rise TO amusing
contretemps remember an old man who was
CLERK At st h basa a. at once Word IN
hymn OF the vicar. The hymn was the we'll
known one
We've no abiding city here,
and one of the verses commences thus:
We've no abiding CIV here,
This may distress the worldling's mind.
That word tCOrldltng was indeed a pOns ash
nOrann for the poor old clerk, and the congre-
II lt
This ma-ay distress the wor-rul-wOr-rul-
Notwithstanding moind," was generally
about what he made oft, and the organist, the
very loudest at that line, to drown the tlttering
OF the congregation. The greatest tiascoes,
however, arose from the selections of inappro-
pirate tunes. One Ia which the words "And
bow before the throne" were rendered thus
And bow-wo WOW before the throne. W. W."
have been looking through some letters late
SnppimpnS
There Is a hymn-I forget In what collection
in which the line " With Thy benediction seal"
occurs have that at tn THIS hymn 10
aaron, u.s." and this Is how the above line
came In the music
With Thy benny
With Thy benediction seal.
Another favorite tune in those days was called
JOB" which was made to do duty for all sorts
of LONG metre hymns Two singular speci-
mems OF its appropriateness are appended
o.. The line in one was, " Stir up this stupid heart
to pray and this was the way it was sung:
Stir up this stew
Stir up this stewpid heart, etc.
The other was-"And love Thee better than be-
fore'-which was sung
And love Thee bet
And love Thee better, than, etc.
There is tune-"Mles's Lane"-in which,
when sung to its own HYMN, Grown Him Lord
of ALL" the repetition OF the words "Crown
Him. has a very fine effect Unfortunately in
the days am speaking OF the people in charge
of the singing thought more OF the music they
had to sing than of the words and the follow
was made ludicrous. In DR.. Watts's collection
the hymn 80 in the second book concludes
And see salvation nigh" "Miles's Lane made
Ii thus
And see sal-see sal-see salvation nigh.
The hymn 1O4, first book same collection, has
the lines
We would defIe our hearts no more,
No more pollute our hands.
The last line being sung to "M1les's Lane be-
came
No more pon-more poll-more polute our hands.
The 126th hymn, second book of DR.. Watts,
has
Gilds the whole scene with brighter rays,
And more exalts cur joys.
"Miles's Lane" translated the final line into
And more eggs-nore eggs-more exalt our Joys.
There Is another tune called "BOyce," Of
which Twill give an example from No. II hymn,
in DR.. Raffle's Liverpool collection, and the line
is "And learn to kiss the rod" "Boyce" makes
this
And learn to kiss
And learn to kiss
And laar tn kiaaf ,a ro6