The Portland daily press., 1886-02-08
PULPIT AND PLATFORM.
wILLIsroN CHURCH.

WlLLlS1ON ChOHCu
The fourth lecture in the course by the
pastor was very interesting summing up of
the wages question. The subject of the next
lecture, the last, will be "What shall do to
be saved?" What shall be our wages? This
question is just now disturbing our people
more than at any time in the history of our
country. Strikes are the order Of the times
The laborers say, not present gain so much
as permanent advantage what they contend
for. But this is not the question we are to
discuss tonight-grave as is the question
for so widespread lis the discomfort that it is
plain that there is wrong on both sides. The
Golden Rule is recommended to both capital
ist and laborer possible solution OF some
of the troubles. The speaker rapidly review
ed the situation, referring to personal expe-
rience of the hard times of 1878, and recon-
mended mutual forbearance
There is no question of wages In GodS
service. There, strikes avail nothing, U9q UI,
WAYS allow no compromises. Eternity Is Ills
Who can hasten Him? Gods wages are
fixed No plea for more will avail What
He pays is not felt to arbitrary enactments.
Whatever is due man will be paid, WnetheI
glory or woe. Our thoughts have changed
somewhat in relation to heaven or nell us
not the hot pincers of Dante that we picture
in the internal region, nor white roDed an
gels winging their way laden with packages
of gifts to the blessed in heaven. The wages
of sin is death" We can tell exactly What
our wages are to be.
Gods wages are not all paid in the future.
Some think 1t enough to live as they Will ana
repent just in time to squeeze through the
gates into the city A man living a life OF
sin is getting his wages day by day, and his
face shows it. And so man with a clean
heart shows by his face that he is getting his
wages as he goes along; but these wages are
only the first fruits of what we are to receive;
meagre in comparison to what are to come
'Tis not all of life, to live,
Nor all of death, to die"
''The wages of sin is death, but the gift is
eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord"
Shall then rev ards be endless? So long as
a sinner partakes of sin, unrepentant, so
long he must receive the wages of sin. When
ever sin shall cease to be sinful then shall
feel that he is not entitled to single day in
heaven, but if by the grace of God we enter
there we shall stay until we sin, and the
wages are sure.
HIGH STREET CHURCH.
Last evening Rev. W. II. Fem, d. D.,
preached on "The Church Music of the
Time A rapid sketch was given of the
rise of church music down to the present
time. Then with reference to what it should
be, he said: Church music should be real,
and accomplish what it was intended to do,
varying according to the shade of the under
lying idea of worship. 1t must fulfil the re-
ligious intent of the occasion. The hymn
must be Christian in sentiment; have sprung
by inspiration out of the spiritual side of the
composer. Hymns are today losing in dig
nifty, elevation and power, and are becoming
soft, self-pitying and personal. The tunes
similarly are failing OF simplicity and
There is a thirst for piquancy and imme-
diate effect The old tune books are gone,
giving way to hymn and tune books. The
tunes are written for single stanza and not
welded to the entire hymn. Many varieties
of hymns are found under the same tune.
city, rather than by the sentiment of the
first line of words, as in North Germany.
Church music should be brought nearer to
the distinctive character of the times and
the needs of the people,-not that no music
should be sung by trained choirs, whose
quality for the time could not be appreciated
by the average listener, but the music should
lift and teach the people. The best art
breaches like a prophet. Dante, Milton,
Michael Angelo, Bach and Handel are super
natural in motif machinery, subject and
treatment. They deal in God, make free
with Him and His thoughts, and are preach
ers after the grandest sort
Church music ought to be no merely indi-
vidual thought, but historical and prophetic,
too, linking itself to the past and to the
future. True worship is born of God and
returns to Him again. Like the river which
flows from under the throne of God to the
sea, it is caught up again under the beams of
the sun of righteousness, and reflected as
incense unto the highest heayen-the song
of Moses and the Lamb.