The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1886-05-14

peace q great while, these two old people
and we have no right TO divorce them
"What God hath Joined together let nc
man put asunder." Born - we have been
amid this great wealth Of church music
augmented BY the compositions of artists
In our day, We ought not to be tempted out
| Of the sphere Of Christian harmony and
try to seek unconsecrated sounds. Il d
absurd for . millionaire to steal.
Many Of you are Illustrations Of what
sacred song can do. Through II you were
brought into the Kingdom Of Jesus Christ.
You stood out against the warning and
the argument Of the pulpit, but whom in
the sweet words Of Charles Wesley or
John Newton or Toplady, the love Of Je-
sus was sung to your soul, then you sur.
rendered, a. an armed castle that could
not be taken by host, HITS ito window to
listen to harp's trill.
There was Q Scotch soldier diving in
New Orleans and Scotch minister came
in to give him the consultations Of the Cos.
pei. The man turned over ON his pillow
and said:
"Don't talk to me about religion"
Then the Scotch minister began to sing
familiar hymn of Scotland that was COM
posed by David Dickinson, beginning with
the words:
o mother, dear Jerusalem,
When shall come to theea
He sung it to the tune of Dundee, and
every body in Scotland knows that; and
as he began to sing the dying soldier
fpvrv L.
minister:
"Where did you learn thatl"
"Why," replied the minister, "my moth
er taught me that"
$50 did mine," said the dying Scotch
soldier; and the very foundation Of his
heart was upturned. and then and there
he yielded himself to Christ.
Oh, it is an irresistible power! Luther's
sermons have been forgottea, but his
Judgment Hymn" sings ON through the
ages, and will keep on singing until the
blast of the archangel's 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 a. certainly ~ 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 Elijahi
have also noticed the power Of sacred
song TO soothe perturbation. You may
have come in here with . great many wor-
riments and anxieties, yet perhaps In the
singing of the first hymn you lose all
those worriments and anxieties. 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
out Of him. A Spanish king was melan-
choly. 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-
doris of the cosrt could not do, the power
Of song accomplished. II 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.
It also arouses to action. Do you not
know that . singing church h always .
triumphant church, II . congregation il
silent during the exercise, or partially
silent, it is the silence Of death. If when
the hymn is given out you hear the faint
hum of here and there a father and mother
in Israel, while the vast majority are
silent, that minister of Christ who is pre-
siding needs to have a very strong consti-
tuition IL he does not get the chills. He
needs not only the grace Of God, but
nerves like whalebone. II is amazing how
some people with voice enough to dis.
charge all their duties in the world, when
they come into the house of God have no
voice to discharge this duty. really be-
lieve that il the Church of Christ could
rise up and sing ss it ought to sing,
that where you have . hundred souls
brought into the kingdom of Christ there
would be thousand. How was it in olden
time? Cajetan said: Luther conquered
US by his songs"
But must now speak Of some Of the OBJ
stacies in the way of the advancement of
this sacred music; and the FIRST is, that It
has been impressed into the service of SUI
perstition. am far from believing thut
music ought always 10 be positively
religious. Refined art has opened places
where music has been secularized and
lawfully so. The drawing.rooR 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 rs 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 we'll 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 |
else to hear them sing. Every
body is waiting for somebody else to do
his duty. II we all sang, then the mac.
curacies that are evident when only q
few sing would be drowned out. God |
asks you to do as well as you can, and |
then, il 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 if you
should lose your place in the musi- |