The Brookhaven leader., 1886-05-13
o mother, dear Jerusalem.
When shall / come to theef


He sung it to the tune OF Dundee, aud
every body in Scotland knows that; and
as he began to sing the dying soldier
turned over on his pillow and said to the
minister:
"Where did you learn that"
"Whv," replied the minister, "mv moth
er taught me that"
$50 did mne," 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 poweri 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 archangels trumpet shall
bring about that very day which the
hymn celebrates. I 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
it, o hungry Elijah!
have also noticed the power of sacred
song to soothe perturbation. You may
have come in here with a great many wor-
riments and anxieties, yet perhaps in the
singing of the first hymn you lose all
those worriments and anxietes. 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
nnt Of him A 0nanich Etnn al
cholv. The windows were all closed. He
sat in the darkness. Nothing could bring
him forth until Franell came and dis
coursed music for three 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 splen-
dors of the court could not do, the power
of song accomplished. If you have anxi-
cites 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, If congregation is
silent during the exercise, or partially
silent, it is the silence of death. If when
the lynn is given out you hear the faint
hum of here and there father and mo ther
in Israel, while the vast majority are
silent, that minister of Christ who is pre-
siding needs to have very strong consti-
tuition if he does not get the chills. He
needs not only the grace Of God, but
nerves like whalebone. 1t is amazing how
some people with voice enough to dis
charge all their duties in the world, w IN
they come into the house of God have no
voice to discharge this duty. i really be-
lieve that if the Church of Christ could
rise up and sing as it ought to sing,
that where you have a hundred souls
brought into the kingdom of Christ 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 90.
stacles in the way of the advancement of
this sacred music; and the first is, that it
has been impressed into the service of su-
perstition. l 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 it has to
pray in st. Paul's. 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 inn
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
bis 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, If you get the wrong pitch or keep
wrong time, he will forgive any de-
ficiency 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
a bar behind. There are three schools
of singing, / 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 it 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 it is easier to preach on this than IT
is TO practice; but sing for two reasons
First, because like it, and next, because
/ want to encourage those who do not
knowhow. ! have but very little faculty
in that direction and no culture at all, yet
am resolved to sing though every note
should go of like Chinese gong. God
has-conlpanded it aud dare not be silent.
He calls on the beasts, ON the cattle, on
the dragons, to praise him, and we ought
not to be behind the cattle and the drag
Ons.
Another obstacle that has been In the
way Of the advancement of this holy art
has been SO much angry discussion on the