St. Landry democrat., 1886-05-22
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
q Discourse On the Subject Of Con-
gregational Singing.
The Arguments For and Against 1.-THE
Influence of Church NIusic-The Meth
DDS, Past and Present-Pre-
centors and ChOirs.


Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage took for the
Brooklyn Tabernacle, congregational
Singing" taking for his text:
III came even to pass, as the trumpeters
and singers were as one. to make one sound
to be heard In praisng and thanking the
Lord-fI1. Chronicles. v, 1871
chorus of all magnihcence and pomp.
Splendor crowded against splendor. 1t
was the diamond necklace of the earth.
From the huge pillars crowned with leaves
of flowers and rows of pomegranate
wrought out in FURNISHED metal, down
even to the tongs and shutters made out of
pure gold, every thing was as complete as
the God-directed architect could make it.
1t seemed ssd . sisieR from Heaven had
alighted on the mountains. The day for
dedication came. Tradition says that
there were in and around about the temple
on that day 30e.e80 silver trumpets, 10000
harps, 10000 timbreIs and 200, 900 singers;
so that all modern demonstrations at Dus-
seldorf or Boston seem nothing compared
with that. As this great sound-surged
up amid the precious stones of the
temple, it must have seemed like the
River of Life dashing against the
amethyst of the wall Of heaven. The
sound arose and God, as il to show that
he was well pleased with the music which
his children make In all ages, dropped
into the midst of the temple a cloud of
glory so overpowering that the officiating
priests were obliged to stop in the midst
of the services.
There has been much discussion as to
where music was born. 1 think that at
the beginning, when the morning stars
sang together and all the suns of God
shouted for joy, that the earth heard the
echo. The cloud On which the angels stood
TO celebrate the creation was the birth
place of song. The stars that glitter at
night are only SO many keys of celestial
pearl on which Gods fingers play the mu-
sic of the spheres. Inanimate nature is
full of Gods stringed and wind instru-
ments. Silence itself-perfect slence-is
only musical rest in Gods great an
them Of worship. Wind among the
leaves, insect humming in the sum-
mer air, the rush of billow upon
beach, the ocean far out sounding
it's everlasting psalm. the bobolink on the
edge of the forest. the quail whistling up
from the grass. are music.
The day of Judgment, which will be
day of tumuH and uproar, I suppose, will
bring no dissonance to the ears Of those
who can calmly listen, although it will be
as when some great performer, in execut-
ing boisterous piece of music, he some-
times breaks down the instrument upon
which he plays; SO ii may be on that last
day that the grand march of God, played
by the fingers Of thunder and earth.
quake and confagration, may break
down the world upon which the music
is executed. Not only is inanimate ma
sure full of music, but God has wonderfully
organized the human voice, SO that in the
plainest throat and lungs there are four
teen direct muscles which can make over
10000 different sounds Now, there are
thirty indirect muscles which can make,
it has been estimated, more than la, 900 900
of sounds. Now, say, when God has SO
constructed tue human voice, and when he
has filed the whole earth with harmony,
and when He recognized it in the ancient
temple, have right to come to the con-
clusion that God loves music.
propose this morning to speak about
sacred music. first showing you its inn
portance and then stating some of the OBJ
stacles to its advancement.
/ draw the first argument for the inn
portance of sacred music from the fact
that God commanded it. Through Paul
He tells US to admonish one another in
psalms and hymns and spiritual songs;
through David He cries out: Sing We to
God all We kingdoms of the earth" And
there are hundreds of other passages
might name, proving that it is as much
mans duty to sing as it is to pray. In
deed | think there are more commands in
the Bible to sing than there are to pray
for the instruments of music. He asks
for the cymbal. and the harp, and the
trumpet And suppose that, in the last
days Of the church, the harp, the lutte, the
trumpet, and all the instruments of music
that have given their chief aid to the the
alter and bacchanal, will be brought by
their masters and laid down at the feet Of
Christ and then sounded in the church's
triumph on her way from suffering into
glory. "Praise we the Lord!" Praise him
with your voices. Praise him with stringed
instruments and with organs.
draw another argument for the impor.
lance of this exercise from the impressive
ness Of the exercise. You know something
of what secular music has achieved. You
know it has made it's impression upon
governments, upon laws, upon literature,
upon whole generations. One inspiriting
National air is worth thirty thousand men
as a standing army. There comes time
in the battle when one bugle is worth a
thousand muskets. In the earlier part of
tha civil war the Government proposed to