The Brookhaven leader., 1886-05-13

| musical instruments. In the same church
there are those who do not like musical
instruments, and 80 II Is organ and no or
gan, and there Is q flght. In another
church IL Is question whether the music
shall be conducted by precentor or by
drilled choir. Some want o drilled choir
and some want a precentor, and .shere is .
fight. Then there are those who would
like in the church 10 have the organ
played in dull, iifeless dron-
ing way, while there are 9TH
ers who would have it wreathed
into fantasies, 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 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 1t full of stnccato passages
that make the audience jump with great
eyes and hair on end as though by
vision OF the witch of Endor. aud he who
tries 10 please all will succeed in nothing.
| Nevertheless, you are TO admit the fact
that the contest which is going on in hun
dreds of churches Of the United States to-,
day is mighty hinderance to the ad-
| vancement of this art. In this way scores
and scores Of churches are entirely Grip
| pied as to all influence, and the music 10
| 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 well as l that there are
a great multitude OF churches all through
this land where the people are not
expected to sing. The whole work is
done by a delegati 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 sin ging and the great mass OF peo-
pie are expected to be silent. and il you
utter your voice you are interfering. There
they stand. the four, with opera glass
dangling at their side singing, "Rock 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 pracentor. We do it for two reasons:
one is that by throwing the whole respor-
sibility upon the mass of the people, max
ing the great multitude the choir, we
might rouse more heartiness. The con-
gregation coming on the Sabbath day
feel that they can not dele gate 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 immensity 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-
tion in that direction. The only church
fight that ever occurred under my minis
try was over melodeon in my frst 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 pc 10! Some of the warmest
friends have ever had have stood up in
them, Sabbath after Sabbath, con nscien-
tiously and successfully leading the praises
of God. But the majority of ohoirs
throughout the land are not made up OF
Christian people, and three fourths of the
church fights originate in the organ-loft.
l take that back and say nine -tenths.
Many of our churches are dy ing of choirs.
Let US, as a church, give still more atten-
| tion to the music. If man with voice
enough to sing keep silent during the exer-
else he commits q crime against God and
insults the Almighty.
There will he 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 and sing for
everf 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 l do not believe you will ever
sing them in glory. would that our sing
ing to-day might be like the Saturday
night rehearsal for the Sabbath morning
in the skies, and might begin nowAby 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 Emanaers ground
To fairer worlds on high.
Come, now, clear your throats an get
ready for this duty or you will never hear
the end of this. ! never shall forget hear.
ing Frenchman singing the Marseillaise
hymn on the Champ Elysees, Paris, just
before the battle of Sedan. I never saw