The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1886-05-20

began to sing the dying soldier turned over
on his pillow and said to the minister;
"Where did you learn that" "Why,n re-
Piled the minister; "riiy mother taught mo
that $50 did mine, said tho dying Scotch
soldier; and the very foundation OF his
heart was upturned, and then and there
Re yielded himself to Christ. Oh, it
have been forgotten but his Judgment
Hymn sings on through thu ages and will
Keep on singing until the blast Of the arch
angels trumpet shall bring about, that very
day which the hymn celebrates. j would I'd
tod that those who hear me today would
take these songs of salvation as messages from
heaven; for, just as certainly as the birds
brought food to Eliza 10y the brook Cher,th,
r-Sese winged harnionies, God-sent, are
~ to your soul with the bread of life
Z our mouth and take it, o hungry ELL
s,..obolso npticcd the power OF sncred
song to soothe perturbation. You may have
come in here with great many worriments
and anSieties, yet perhaps in the singing OF
the first hymn you lost oil those worriments
aud anxieties. You have read in the Bible
of Saul, and how he was sad and angry, aud
how the boy David came in and played the
,vil spirit out of him A Spanish king was
melancholy. The windows were all closed.
He sat In the darkness Nothing
conld bring hint forth tiittil Fra.
nell came and discoursed music for
shroo or four days to him. On the fourth
day he looked up and wept and rejoiced, and
the windows were thrown open, and that
which all the splendors of the court could
mt do, the power of song accomplished, II
sou have anxieties and worrments try this
heavenly charm upon them. Do not sit down
On the hank of the hymn, but plunge IN, that
The devil of care may be brought ont of You.
It also arouscs to action, Do you not know
that singing church is always triumphant
church! II q congregation is silent during the
exercise, or'partialy silent it is the silence of
ieath If when the hymn is given out you
near the faint hum of here and there father
md mother in Israel while the vast ma jority
ire silent, that minister of Christ who is pre-
siding needs to have a very strong constitution
IL he does not yet the chils He na,is not only
lhe grace Of God but nerves likewhalebGnN. 1t
IS amazing how some people with voice
,nuugh to discharge all their duties in the
world, VIII they 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 rs it ought to sing,
that where we have hundred souls brought
INTO tho kingdom of Christ there would be b,
thousand. Flow was 1t in Olden time!
Uajetan said: "Luther conluered us by his
songs"
But must now speak of some Of the OH
sa les in the way of the advancement of this
sacred music; and the first is that it has
been impressed into the service Of sure"sti-
tion am far from believing that music
ought always to be positively religious. Re-
lined art has opened places where music has
been secularized aud lawfully So The draw
Ing room, the musical club, the orchestra, the
concert by the qualification of pure taste
Ind the produ ton of harmless amusement
aud the improvement of talent, have become
tery forces in the advancement of our civili-
,ation Music Eas as much right to laugh in
Surrey Gardens rs it has to pray in st, Paurs:
In this kingdom OF nature we have the glad
iing of the winds as well as the long metro
balm of the thunder. But while all this
Is so, evcry observer has noticed that
this art, which God intended for the iat-
oroyement of the car and the voice and the
head and the heart, has often been imprss5en
into the service of error Tariini, the must-
cal composer, dreamed one night that Satan
snatahsd fr9iu his i.and an instrument and
playrd uyon it something 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, cap.
tured from the church and applied to pur'
poses of sin.
fear of criticism, The vast ma jority of peo,
| pie singing in church never want anybody
| else to heal. them sing. Everybody is wait
Ing for somebody else to do his duty, l. we
| ali sing then the inaccura les that are evident
| when only few sing would he drowned out
Cod asks you to do as well as you can, anc
then, if you get tha wrong pitch or keeT
wrong time, he will forgive any deficiency
Of the ear and imperfections of the voice
| !
lose your place in the musical scale, or come
| in at the close lar behind. There are three
schools of singing, am told-the German
school, the Italian school and the Frencl
! school OF singing. Now, would like to ado
fourth school, and that is the school Of
Christ. The voice of contrte, broken heart
! although it may not be able to stand human
| criticism, makes better music to Gods eal
than the most artistic performance wher
| the heart is wanting. l know 1T !;
easier to preach on this than it il
to practice; but l sing for two reasons
first, because / like it and next because
want to encourage those who do not know
how, have but very little faculty in thai
direction and no culture at all, yet | am re
solved to sing though every note should g
off like Chinese gong. God has commands
it and dare not lie silent. He calls on th
beasts, on the cattle, on the dragons t.
| the cattle and the dragons.
| Another obstacle that has been in the wa,
of the advancement of this holy art has beel
so much angry discussion on the subject o
music. There are those who would have thu
exercise conducted hy musical instruments
In the same church there arc those who d'
not like musical instruments, and so it Is or
gan and no organ, and there is fight II
! another church it is n question whether TIN
| oh oil ha rnrluptpI n nrppnutDl
or by drilled choir Some want I
drilled choir and some want pre-
centor, and there is a fight. Then there
are those who would like in the church tt
have the organ played in a dull, liteless
droning way, while there are others wh'
would have it wreathed into fantasies
branching out into jets and spangles o
sound, rolling and tossing in marvellous con
| yolutions, as when in pyrotechnlc displa.
YOU think piece is exhausted it breaks ou
| in wheels, rockets. blue lights and serpentin
demonstrations Some would have the orSal
played in almost inaudible sweetness, an
others would have it full of staccat'
passages that make the audience jump
with great eyes and hair on end, ,as though b,
u. visan of the Witch of Endor; and he VIII
tries to please all will succeed i'll nothing
| Nevertheless you are to admit the fact tha
this contest which is going on in hundred
of the churches of the United States today
is a mighty hindrance to the advancement o
this art. In thi; way scores and scores o
churches are entirely crippled as to all iniiu
ence and the music is q damage rather tha
praise.
Another obstacle in the advancement o
| this art has been the erroneous notion tina
this part of the service could be conducte
BY a delegation. Churches have said "Of
what an easy time we shall have. The mini,
ter will do the preaching and the choir wi
do the singing and we will have na:hing t
do" And you know as well as that thei
are great multitude of churches all throug
| this land where the people are not expecte
to sing. The whole work is done by delega
tions Of four or six or ten persons and tn
audience is silent. In such a church j
Syracuse, an old elder persisted i
singing and so the choir appointed a commit
tee to go and ask the squire if he would no
stop. You know that in a great multitud
of churches the choir are expected and do a
the singing and the great masse; of peopl
are expected to he silent, and if you ute
your voice you are interfering. There the
stand, the four, with opera-glasses danglin
at their side, singing, Crock Of Ages, clei
for me" with the same spirit that the nigh