The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-05-19
Open your mouth and take it, o hungry Eli

and anxieties. You have read in the Bible
of Saul, aud how he was sad and angry, and
how the boy David came in and played the
evil spirit out of him. A Spanish king was
melancholy. The windows were al! closed.
He sat in the darkness. Nothing
neGlo oeIi came elius and Id discoursed music for
three or four days to him. On the fourth
day he looked up and wept and rejoiced, and
the windows were thrown open, and that
which all the snlendors Of the court could
not do, the power Of song accomplished. II
Won have anxieties and worriments try this
heavenly charm upon them. Do not sit down
on the bank Of the hymn, but plunge In, tnas
the devil of care may be brought out of YOU
1t also arouses to action: DO you not Know
that singing church is always triumphant
church, If a Congregation is silent during the
exercise, orpartially silent, it is the silence OF
death. If when the hymn is given out you
hear the faint hum of here and there father
and mother in Israel while the vast majority
are silent. that minister Of Christ who is pre-
siding needs to have very strong constitution
if he does not get the chills He needs not only
the grace Of God but nerves like whaieDone. IL
is amazing how some people with voice
enough to discharge all their. duties IN the
world, when they come into the house or God
have no voice to discharge this duty: !
could rise up and sing as it ought to sing,
that where we have hundred souls brought
flto the kingdom Of Christ there would be q
thousand. How was it in olden times
Cajetan said: Luther conquered US by his
songs"
But must now speak Of some OF the oo-
stacles in the way of the advancement OF thls
sacred music; and the first is. that 1t mas
been impressed into the service of superstl-
tion. lam far from believing that music
ought always to be positively religious. Re-
fined art has opened places where music has
been secularizsd and lawfully so. The draw
ing.room, the musical club, the orchestra, the
concert. by the gratiiH alton Of pure taste
and the production of harmless amusement
and the Improvement of talent, have become
very forces in the advancement of our clvllI-
zation. Music has as much right to laugh IN
Surrey Gardens asst has to pray in st. Pauls
In the kingdom of nature we have the glad
fling of the winds as we'll as the long metre
psalm Of the thunder. But while all this
is so, every observer has notlced tnat
this art, which God intended for the I'M
nroyement of the ear and the voice and the
head and the heart, has often been Impressed
into the service of error. Tartinl, the musl'
cal composer, dreamed one night that Satan
snatched from his hand an instrument and
PLAYED upon it something very sweet-a
dream that has often been fulfilled in our
day, the voice and the instruments that
ought to have been devoted to Christ, cap
tured from the church and applied to pur-
poses Of sin.
fear of criticism, The vast majority of peo-
pie singing in church never want anybody
else to hear them sing. Everybody Is walt
ing for somebody else to do his duty, j. we
ali sing then the inaccuracies thatare evident
when only few sing would be drowned out:
God asks YOU to do as well as you can, and
then, if YOU get the wrong pitch or keep
wrong time, he will forgive any deficiency
of the ear and imperfections of the voice;
Angels will not laugh if you should
lose your place in the musical scale, or come
in at the close bar behind. There are three
schools of singing, am told-the German
school. the Italian school and the French
school Of singing. Now, would like to add
a fourth school, and that is the school OF
Christ. The voice Of contrite, broken heart,
although it may not be able to stand human
criticism, makes better music to Gods ear
than the most artistic performance when
the heart is wanting. know it is
easier to preach on this than 1t IS
to practice; but I sing for two reasons
first, because like it and next because J
want to encourage those who do not know
how. Ihave but very little faculty IN that
direction and no culture at all, yet am re-
solved to sing though every note should go
off like Chinese gong. God has commanded
it and dare not be silent. He calls on the
beasts, on the cattle, on the dragons to
praise him, and we ought not to be behind
the cattle and the dragons.
Another obstacle that has been in the way
of the advancement Of this holy art has been
so much angry discussion on the subject OF
music. There are those who would nave tnls
exercise conducted by musical Instruments
In the same church there are those VINO 40
not like musical instruments, and so it Is or
gan and no organ, and there is a fight. In
another church it is a question whether the
music shall be conducted by precentor
or by a drilled choir Some want a
drilled choir and some want pre-
centor, and there is q fight. Then there
are those who would like in the church to
have the organ played i'll dull: IfeleSs,
droning way, while there are others who
would have it wreathed into fantasies.
branching out into jets and spangles OF
sound, rolling and tossing In marvellous con.
volutions, as when in pyrotechnlc display
YOU think piece is exhausted it breaks out
in wheels, rockets. blue lights and serpentine
demonstrations. Some would have the organ
plaved in almost inaudible sweetness, and
Others would have it full of staccato
passages that make the audience jump,
with great eyes and hair on end ,as though by
a vision of the Witch of Endor; and he who
tries to please all will succeed in nothing.
Nevertheless YOU are to admit the fact that
this contest which is going on in hundreds
of the churches of the United States to-day.
is a mighty hindrance to the advancement Of
this art. In this way scores and scores Of
churches are entirely crippled as to all int1u-
ence and the music is a damage rather than
praise.
Another obstacle in the advancement OF
this art, has been the erroneous notion that
this part of the service could be conducted
by delegation Churches have said: "Oh
what an easy time we shall have. The minis.
ter will do the preaching and the choir will
do the singing and we will have nothing to
do" And you know as well as l that there
are great multitude of churches all through
this land where the people are not expected
to sing. The whole work is done by delega-
tions Of four or six or ten persons and the
audience is silent. In such church in
Syracuse, an old elder persisted in
singing, and so the choir appointed commit
tee to 60 aud ask the squire if he would not
stop. You know that in great multitude
OF churches the choir are expected and do all
the singing and the great masses of people
are expected to be silent, and if you utter
your voice you are interfering There they
Stand, the four, with opera-glasses dangling
at their side, singing, Crock of Ages, cleft
for me-" with the same spirit that the night
before, on the stage, they :ook their part in
the Grand Duchess or "pon Giovanni"
My Christian friends, have we a right to
delegate to others the discharge of this duty
which God demands of us? Suppose that
four wood thrushes propose to do all the sing
ing some bright day when the woods are
ringing with bird voices 1t is decided that
four wood thrushes shall do all the singing
of the forest. Let all other voices keep
silent. How beautifully the four warbled !
It is really fine music. But how long will
To-, l,ao,, tho fnrest still2 Why Christ wOnl Il