The southern sentinel. (Winnfield, La.) 1883-1910, 1886-06-11
q familiar hymn Of Scotland that was com.
posed by David Dickinson, beginning with
the words.

-
posed by David Dickinson, beginning with
the words:
O mother. dear Jerusalem,
When shall come to thee?
He sung it to the tune of Dundee, and
every body in Scotland knows that; and
as he began to sing the dying soldier
turned over on his pillow and said to the
minister:
"Where did you learn that!"
"why," replied the minister, "my moth
err taught me that"
$50 did mine," said the dying Scotch
soldier; and the very foundation of his
heart was upturned. and then and there
he yielded himself to Christ.
Oh, it is an irresistible power! Luther's
sermons have been forgotten, but his
Judgment Hymn" sings on through the
ages, and will keep on singing until the
blsst of the archangel's trumpet shall
bring about that very day which the
hymn celebrates. ! would to God that
those who hear me to-day would take
these songs of salvation as messages from
Heaven; for, just as certainly as the birds
brought food to Elijah by the brook
Cherith, so these winged harmonies, God
sent, are flying to your soul with the
bread Of life. Open your mouth and take
it, o hungry Elijah!
But must now speak of some of the OBJ
stacies in the way of the advancement of
this sacred music: and the first is, that it
has been impressed into the service of su-
perstition. am far from believing thut
music ought always to be positively
religious. Refined art has opened places
where music has been secularized and
lawfully so. The drawing-room the
musical club, the orchestra, the con-
cert, by the qualification of pure taste
and the production of harmless amuss-
ment and the improvement of talent. have
become very forces in the advancement of
our civilization. Music has as much right
to laugh in Surrey Gardens as it has to
pray in st. Paul's. In the kingdom Of
nature we have the glad fling of the
wind az well as the long meter psalm
Ipf the thunder. But while all this is
so, every observer has noticed that this
art, which God intended for the i'm
provement of the ear and the voice and
the head and the heart, has often been
impressed into the service Of error Tar.
TIM, the musical composer. dreamed one
night that Satan snatched from his hand
an instrument and played upon it some-
thing 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, captured from the
Church and applied to purposes of sin.
~1~to u A.
way Of the advancement of this holy art
has been so much angry discussion on the
subject Of music. There are those who
would have this exercise conducted by
musical instruments. In the same church
there are those who do not like musical
instruments, and so it is organ and no or
gan, and there is fight. In another
church it is question whether the music
shall be conducted by precentor or by
drilled choir. Some want q drilled choir
and some want . precentor, and there is
fight. Then there are those who would
like in the church to have the organ
played in dull, lifeless dron-
ing way, while there are 9TH
srs who would have it wreathed
into fantasies, branching out into jets
and spangles Of sound, rolling and tossing
in marvellous convolu.ions, as when in py-
display you think piece is ex-
hausted It breaks out in wheels, rockets, |
blue lights and serpentine demonstrations.
Some would have the organ played 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 q
vision Of the witch of Endor, and he who |
tries to please all will succeed in nothing.
you are to admit the fact |
that the contest which is going ON in hum
dreds Of churches of the United States to- |
lay Is mighty hinderance to the adj
vancement of this art. In this way scores
and scores of churches are entirely Grip |
,led as to all influence, and the music il q |
iamage rather than praise.
Another obstacle in the advancement of |
his art has been the erroneous notion that
his part Of the service could be con-
iucted by delegation. Churches have
aid:
"Oh, what an easy time we shall have.
The minister will do the preaching and
he choir will do the singing, and we win
lave nothing to do"
And you know as we'll as that there ara
great multitude Of churches all through
his land where the people are not
expected to sing. The whole work In
lone by . delegation Of four or six or
en- persons and the audience are
ilent. In such church in Syracuse an
Id elder persisted in such singing. and
o the choir appointed . committees to 70
nd ask the squire il he would not stop.
lou know that in great multitude Of
hurches the choir are expected, and do,
II the singing and the great mass of peo-
le are expected to be silent, and IL You
tier your voice you are interfering. There
hey stand, the four, with opera glass
angling at their side singing, "Rock Of
Ages Cleft Tor Me, with the same spirit
nat the night before on the stage thew
,ok their part in the ''Grand DucheAs', or
Don Giovanni"
MY Christian friends, have We right 70
eiegate to others the discharge of this
uty which God demands Of usf Suppose
lat four woodthrushes propose to do an
10 singing some bright day whom the
GODS are ringing with bird voices. II In
ecided that four woodthrushes shall do
I the singing Of the forest Let an Other |