Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1886-05-03

souls, how they used 10 sing! "neu -"
were cheerful our grandtsthers and grand
mothers used TO sing Colchester. Whel
thew were very meditstive then the meel
ing house rang with South Street an!
st, Edmonds !" Were they struck through
with great tenderness they sang wood
stock" We're they wrapped in visions o
the glory Of the church they sang Zion,
Were they overborne with the love ant
glory of Christ they sang Ariel An'
IN those days there were certain tune
married to certain hymns, and they ht "
lived in peace a great while, these two Ole
people, and we have no right to divorce
them what God hath joined togetheI
let no man put ssunder." Born "a =
have been amid this great wealth of church
music augmented by the compositions o
artists in our day, we ought not to bt
tempted ont Of the sphere Of Christian
harmony aud try to seek unconsecrstec
souuds. 1t lie absurd for s. millionaire Il
steal.
Many of you are illustrations Of
WHAT SACRED SONG CAN Do.
Through it you were brought into the
k;pgdom of Jesus Christ. You stood out
against the warning and the argument o.
the pulpit, but when in the sweet words oi
Charles Wesley or John Newton or Top
lady the love of Jesus Vas sung to your
soul, then you surrendered, as armed cas-
tie that could not be taken by host, Lifts
it's window to listen to harp's trill.
There was a Scotch soldier dying in
New Orleans aud Scotch minister came
in to give him the consultations of the
Gospel. The man turned over on his pill
low and said; Don't talk to me about
relision" Then the Scotch minister be-
gan to sing a familiar hymn of Scotland
that was composed BY David D.ckenson,
beginning with the words:
so muthar, dear Jerusalem,
When snail come to thee?"
BE sung it to the tune of Dundee and
everybody in Scotland knows that; and as
be began to sing the dying soldier turned
over on bis pillow and said TO the
minister: Where did you learn thatY'
Why" replied the minister, my mother
taught me that" SO did mine" said the
diving Scotch soldier; and the very founda-
ton OF his heart was upturned ard then
and there he yielded himself TO Christ. Oh,
it has al irresistible poTerl Luther 8 SER
mons have been forgotten but his "Judg'
ment Hymn" sings on through the ages
and will keep on singing uutil the blast OF
The archaugels trumphet shall bring about
that very day which the hymu celebrates
would TO God that those who hear me to.
dsy, would take these songs ofsslvatIon as
messages from heaven; for, iust as Ger.
taiuly as the birds brought food to Elijah
by the brook Cherith, so these winged har
monies, God sent, are flying to your soul
with the bread OF l!t9 Open your mouth
aud take it, o hungry EEjsh!
have also noticed the power of sacred
song
TO SoeTH PERTURBATION
You may have come in here with great
mauy worriments and snxjeties, yet per
hsps in the singing of the first hymn you
lost all those worrimen's and suxielie5.
You have read in the Blbis of Saul and
how he WAS sad aud angry aud how the
boy David came IN and played the evil
spirit out Of him A Spanish King was
melancholy. The Windows were all closed
He sat in the darkness Nothing could
bring him forth until Francli cane and
discoursed mu.ic for three or four days to
hin. On the fourth day be looked up and
wept and rejoiced sG4 the windows were
thrown open aud that which oil the spien
dors OF the court could not do, the p5aaT
of cong accomplished. If you hsve Goxi-
cites and wocriments try this heavenly
charm upon thsm. Do not sit dowa Oh
the bank of the hymn but plunge in that
thu Geyil OF care may be brought out ot you
1t also sropses 10 UcuGn Ho you not
know that singing CHURCH is always q
trium phant church, If a congregation is
silent during tbs exercises or partially 81
lent, it is the silencs of death 1t when q
hymn is given you hear the faint hum Of
here and there a father aud mother in Is
rsel while the vast majority are silent, that
rainisteY Ct Christ Who is presiding needs
to have & very STRONG constitution ii he
doss not get the chilIs. He needs not
cnly the GRACE Of Goi but nerves like whale
bone. IL Is amazing nov Soale people
with voices enough to discharge all their
duties in the world, when they come into
the house OF God have no voice TO dis
charge this duty. l really believe that if
the church Of Christ could rise up and sing
as it ougGt to sing, ttRt S5ere We nave q
hundred souls brought into the kingdom Of
Christ there would be q thousand How
was it in olden timer Csjetau eaid:
luther conquered Us bV his sorgs.'
Bat must now speak Of
SOME OF TIE OBSTACLES
in the way Of the advancement Of this sacred
music; and the frst is. that it has been
impressed into the ger ice OF supeFstitltiop
sm far from believing that music ought
always to be positively religious. Refined
art has opened places where music has
been seculsrizei aud lawfully so. The
dra wing room, the musical club, the
orchestra, the concert, By the qualification
Of pure tasts sni tho production oi harm
less amusement and the Improvement q
talent, have beeoRe very forcea in the sd
.arcement OF our civilization. Music has
as much right to !ensh in Surrey Gardens
as it has to pray in St Psurs. ~ 'H' N
kingdom of nature we have the glad fling
Of the wind as well as tue long netri
psalm Of the thunder Bat while all thit
is 30 every observer has noticed that thiI
art, which God intended for the i'm
provement of the ear aud the voice and
the head and the heart, has often been i'm
pressed into the service of error Tartini
the musical composer. dreamed one nigh
that Satan snstched from his hand an in
strument and played upon it something
very sueet-s dream that has ofren beeI
fulfilled in our day, the voice and the in
strnments that ought to have been devotet
to Christ, captured from the church AT
applied to purposes Of sin.
| Another obstacle has been sn ipordi
nate
FEAR OF CRITICISM.
The vast msjority Of people singing i
church never want anybody else to hes