The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1886-05-12

| John Newton or Toplady, the love OF Je.
sus was sung to your soul, then you sur
rendered, as an armed castle that could
not be taken by host, lifts It's window to
listen to harp's trill.
There was Scotch soldier dying in
New Orleans and a Scotch minister came
in to give him the consultations of the gos-
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 ofScotland that was COM
posed by David Dickinson, beginning with
-he words:
mother, dear Jerusalem,
When shall come to thee7
He sung IL 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 aud said to the
minister:
"Whers did you learn that9"
"Why," replied the minister, "my moth
er taught me that"
$50 did mlne," said the dying Scotch
soldier; and the very foundation Of his
heart was upturned. and then and there
he yielded himself to Christ
Oh, II Is an Irresistible power! Luther's
sermons have been forgotten, but his
Judgment Hymn" sings on through the
ages, and win keep on singing until the
blast 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
1t, o hungry Eliiahl
But must now speak or some OF the OBJ
stacles In the way Of the advancement of
this sacred music; and the first Is, that IL
has been impressed into the service Of su-
perstition. I 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 amuse-
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 1t has to
pray in st. Paul's.I In the kingdom OF
nature we have the glad fling OF the
wind as well as the long-meter psalm
Of 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.
Another obstacle has been an inordi-
nate fear Of criticism. The vast majority
of people singing in church never want
anybody else to hear them sing. Every
body Is waiting for somebody else to do
his duty. II we all sang, then the inac-
curacies that are evident when only a
few sing would be drowned out. God
asks you to do as well as you can. and
then, II you get the wrong pitch or keep
wrong time, he will forgive any de-
fciency Of the ear and imperfection of
the voice. Angels will not laugh IL you
should lose your place In the musi-
cal scale, or come In at the close
bar behind. There are three schools
Of singing, l am told-the German
school, the Italian school and the French
school Of singing. Now, would like TO
add fouth school, and that Is the school
Of Christ The voice Of contrite, broken
heart, although IL may not be able TO
stand human criticism, makes better music
to Gods ear than the most artistic per-
formance when the heart Is wanting.
know II Is easier to preach on this than II
is to practice; but sing for two reasons:
First, because like II, and next, because
l want TO encourage those who do not
know how. l have but very little faculty
In that direction and no culture at all, yet
l am resolved to sing though every note
should 90 off like a Chinese gong. Gou
has commanded IL and dare not be silent.
He calls on the beasts, on the cattle, on
the dragons, 70 praise him, and we ought
not to be behind the cattle and the drag
ons. --
Another obstacle that has seep In the
way OF the advancement Of this holy art
mas been SO much angry discussion on the
subject OF music. There are those who
would have this exercise conducted by
musical instruments. In tho same church
there are those who do not like musical
instruments, and so II 10 organ and no orr
gan, and there Is fight. In another
church IL Is q question whether the music
shall be conducted by precentor or bya
drilled choir. Some want drilled choir
and some want precentor, and there Ia a
fight. Then there are those who would
like In the church TO have tho organ
played In Q dull, lifeless dron-
ing way, while there are 9th.
ers who would have II wreathed
into fantastics, branching out into jets
and spangles Of sound, rolling and tossing
In marvellous convolutions, as when In py.
rotechnic display you think piece is ex-
hausted II breaks out In wheels, rockets
blue lights and serpentine demonstrations.
Some would have the organ played in
almost inaudible sweetness, and others
would have IL full OF staccato passages
that make the audience jump with great
eyes and hair on end as though by