St. Landry democrat., 1886-05-22

pled as to all influence, 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 con-
| Quoted by delegation. Churches have
said:
"Oh, what an easy time we shall have.
| The minister will do the preaching and
| the choir will do the singing, and we will
have nothing to do"
And you know as we'll as 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 a delegation of four or six or
| ten persons and the audience are
| silent. In such church in Syracuse an
old elder persisted in such singing, and
so the choir appointed a committee to go
| and 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 mass of peo-
pie are expected to be silent. and If you
utter your voice you are interfering. There
they stand, the four, with opera glass
dangling at their side singing, crock of
Ages Cleft for Me-" with the same spirit
that the night before on the stage they
took their part in the "Grand Duchess" or
"Don Giovanni"
Now, in this church, we have resolved
upon the plan of conducting the music by
a precentor. We do it for two reasons:
| one is that by throwing the whole respon
sibility upon the mass of the people, maxi
ing the great multitude the choir, we
might rouse more heartiness. The con-
gregation coming on the Sabbath day
feel that they can not delegate this part of
the great service to any one else, and so
they themselves assume it. We have glori-
GUS congregational singing here. People
have come many miles to hear it. They
are not sure about the preaching. but they
can always depend on the singing. We
have heard the sound coming up like ''the
voice of many waters" but it will be done
at better rate after a while, when we
shall realize the height and the depth and
the immensely of this privilege.
Another reason why we adopted this
plan: We do not want any choir quarrels.
You know very well that in cores of the
churches there has been perpetual conten-
ton in that direction. The only church
fight that ever occurred under my minis
try was over a melodeon in my first settle
ment. Have you never been in church on
the Sabbath day and heard the choir sing
and you said: "That is splendid music?"
The next Sabbath you were in the church
and there was no choir at all. Why? The
leader was mad or his assistants were
mad, or they were mad altogether. Some
of the choirs are made up of our best
Christian people! Some of the warmest
friends have ever had have stood up in
them, Sabbath after Sabbath, conscien-
tiousIy and successfully leading the praises
Of God. But the majority Of choirs
throughout the land are rot made up of
Christian people, and three fourths of the
church fights originate in the organloft
I take that back and say nine-tenths.
Many Of our churches are dying of choirs
Let us, as church, give still more atten-
ton to the music. If man with voice
enough to sing keep silent during the exer-
else he commits crime against God and
insults the Almighty.
There will be great revolution on this
subjects in all our churches. God will
come down by his spirit and rouse up the
old hymns and tunes that have not been
more than half awake since the time of
our grandfathers. The silent pews in the
church will break forth into music, and
when the conductor takes his place on the
Sabbath day there will be a great host of
voices rushing into the harmony. My
Christian friends, If we have no taste for
this service on earth, what will we do in
Heaven, where they all sing aud sing for
ever? Let me prophesy in regard to any
here who has no delight in the worship of
Heaven, if you do not sing the praises OF
God ON earth do not believe you will ever
sing them in glory. I would that our sing.
ing to-day might be like the Saturday
night rehearsal for the Sabbath morning
in the skies, and might begin now by the
strength and by the help of God, to dis
charge duty which none of US have fully
performed.
Let those refuse to sing
Who never knew our God;
But children of the Heavenly King
Should speak their joys abroad.
The hill of Zion yields
thousand sacred sweets,
Before we reach the Heavenly fields,
Or walk the golden streets.
Then let our songs abound,
And every tear be dry;
We're marching through Emanuel's ground
To fairer worlds on high.
Come, now, clear your threats and get
ready for this duty or you will never hear
the end of this. 1 never shall forget hear
ing Frenchman singing the Marseillaise
hymn on the Champ Elysees, Paris, just
before the battle of Sedan. I never saw
such enthusiasm before or since as he sang
that National air. Oh, how the French
man shouted! Have you ever in an En-
gligh assemblage heard band play "God
Save the Queen" If you have you know