Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-05-03

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and we hove NJ rlgh, to divorce them.
what GOD hath joined together let no
man put asunder" Born as we have been
amid this great wealth of church music,
augmented by the composition. of artists
in our day, we ought not to be tempted
out of tbs sphere OF Christian harmony
and try to seek uneonsecrated sounds. 1t
is absurd for millionaire to steal.
Many Of you are illustrations OF what
sacred song can DO, Through il you we're
brought in O the kingdom Of Jesus Christ.
You stood out against the warning and
the argument of the pulpit, but when in
the sweet words Of Charles Wesley or
John Newton or rOplady the love OF Jesus
was sung to your soul, then you surren-
dered, as armed cast e that could not be
taken by host, lifts its window to listen
to harp's tell.
There was Scotch soldier dying in
New Orleans and Scotch minister came
in to give bin the consultations Of the Cos
pei. The man turned over on his pillow
and said:
Don't talk to me about religion"
Then the Scotch minister began to sing
a familiar hymn OF Scotland that was COM
posed by David Dickinson, beginning
with the words:
20 mother, dear Jerusalem,
He sung it to the tune of Dundee and
everybody in Scotland knows that; and
AS he began to sing the dying soldier turn
ed over on his pillow and said to the MINI
lister:
Where did you learn thatw
Why" replied the minister, "my
mother 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
has an irresistible powerl Luther's
sermons have been forgotten, but
his Judgment Hymn" sings on
through the ages and will keep
on singing until the blast OF the arch
Angels trumpet shall bring about that
very day which the hymn celebrates. L
would TO God that those who hear me to-
day, would take these songs OF salvation
a messages from heaven; for, just as cer-
tainly as the birds brought food to Elijah
by the Brook Cherith, so these winged
harfa0nies, God sent, are flying to your
soul with the bread Of life. Open your
mouth and take it, , hungry Ethan!
/ have also noticed the power or sacred
song to soothe perturbation. You may
have come in here with great many
worriments and anXieties, yet perhaps IN
the singing of the first hymn you lost all
those worriments and anxieties. You
have read in the Bible OF Saul and 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 melan-
choly. The windows were all closed.
He sat in the darkness. Nothing could
bring him forth until Franeli came aud
disc0ursed music for three or four days
to him. On the fourth day he looked up
aid Wept and rejoiced, and the windows
were thrown open, and that which all the
splendors of the court could not do, The
power Of song accomplished. Ifyou have
anxieties and wOrriments try this
heavenly charm upon them. Do not sit
down on the bank OF the hymn, but
plunge in that the devil of care may be
brought out of you.
1t also arouses to action. Do you not
know that a singing church Is always a
triumphant church! 1t congregation
is silent during the exercise or partially
silent, it is the silence of death. If
wnen the hymn Is given out you hear the
faint hum of here and there a father and
mother in Israel while the vast majority
are silent, that minister OF Christ who is
presiding need to have a very strong con-
stItution il he does not get the chils. He
needs not only the grace of God but
nerves like whalebone. 1t is
amazing how some people with voice
enough to discharge all their duties in the
world, when tnev come into the house of
God nave no voice to discharge this duty.
| really believe that if the church of
Christ could rise up and sing as it ought
to sing, that where we have hundred
souls brought into the kingdom OF Cnrst
there would be a thousand. How was it
in olden time: Cajetan said: ''Luther
conquered US by his songs"
But | must now speak OF some of the
obstacles in the way of the advancement
OF this sacred music; and the first is, tn at
it has been impressed into the service of
superstition. / am far from believing
that music ought always TO be positively
relig1ous. Refined art has opened places
wnere music has been secularized and
lawfully so. The drawing-room, the mu-
steal club, the orchestra, the concert, by
The gratticatiOn of lure taste and the pro-
duction Cf harmless amusement and the
improvement o. talent, have become very
forces in the advancement of our civlliza-
lion. Music has as much right to laugh
in Surrey Gardens as it has TO pray in ST.
Paufs. In the kingdom of nature we
nave the glad tifing OF the wind as we'll as
the long metre psalm of the thun-
der. 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 i'm
pressed into the service Of error. Tartlnl,
tie musical composer, dreamed one night
thai satan snatehed from his hand an in
strument and played upon it something
very sweet-a dream that BIAS often been
mlfi led in our day, the voice and the in
slruments that ought to have been devoted
to Christ, captured from the church and
applied 10 purposes OF sin.
another obstacle has been an inordi
uate fear of criticism. The vast majority
0i people singing in church never want
ANYBODY else 10 hear them sing. Every
body il waiting for somebody else TO DO
his duty. II we all sang them the mac
CURES mat are evident when only few
sin. would be drowned out. God asks
you to do as well as you can, and then, IL
YOU get the wrong pitch or keep wrong
time, he Will forgive any deficiency Of the
ear aud imperiectl0n Of the voices.
Angels will not laugh If you should lose
your place IN the musical scale, or come
IN at the close a bar behind. There are
three schools OF singing | am told-the
German school, the Italian SCHOOL, and
the French school OF singi6k. Now.
[ would like to add
fourth school, and that is the
school OF Christ. The voice ofa contrite.
broken heart although it may not be able
30 stand human criticism, makes better
music 70 Gods ear than the most artistic
Performance when the heart Is wanting.
/ know 10 Is easier 20 preach on this than
10 tx 20 practice; but sing fjr two rea.
sOug-hrst because | ike IL and next be-