St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-09-30
Suggested by the Organ Serv-
ice at the Peoples
Church.
Rev. S. G. Smith Delivers an
Eloquent Discourse on
Melody.
A Science Man Learned From
Nature in the Worlds
Youth.
Developed Cost Of an Organ
That Would Bankrupt
the City.

lery were filled with vast and expect
ant audience. The musical programme
was a marked feature of the occasion.
The quartette and chorus sang Selec-
tiOnS from Dudley Buck. Gounod and
Shelley and the quartette was never
heard TO better advantage. The superb
new organ was revelation and a de-
light. When Dr.. Smith asked as many
as liked the music to raise their hands,
the vote of the congregation was
unanimous. He then pOintedly
announced the concerts for Tuesday
and Thursday evenings, saving that he
thought it was mean man who would
enjoy the music free on Sunday and fail
to come to the concerts for the benefit of
the organ fund during the week. But
it was the congregational singing that
was the great feature of the service.
For when the grand old hymns with the
tunes Old Hundred, Woodwork and
Coronation were poured out from 1000
threats, guided and balanced by the
organ and chorus. it was enough to
make the old saints shout aloud for joy.
The sermon of DR.. Smith was in harmony
both in theme and treatment with the
Inauguration of the new organ.
THE SERMON.
His text was taken from Psalms
cXix., 81, Thy statutes have been my
song in the house of my pilgrimage"
lie said: 'God built the universe as a
vast concert hall. Long before the uni
verse was fashioned, his upper heavens
were full of melody. And when His
thought and love found a material home
the angelic choir came rushing into it
to hold festival. The morning stars
sang together. and all the sons of God
shouted for joy God saturated all
things with music, and as man rose
from the brute creation he came to
dwell in communion with the eYerlast-
ing harmonieS. All the forms and
forces of nature became his music
teachers. He was taught by the
wash of the waves, by the rustic
of the grasses, by the signing of the
cooling of doves, and by the laughter of
little children. In imitation ne began
10 try to make music for himself. 1t
was not human creation, but neceS-
sarY discovery. As man has nestled
near the heart of nature he has learned
to sing. From all time. and before time,
God has delighted Himself in music;
and, perhaps man has only yet learned
some SnatcheS or the haTmOnjes which
are to be- The progress of civilization
is written in the history of the worlds
choral societies. This superb organ
which we hear for the first time to-day,
is more truly
A MONUMENT OF HUMAN HISTORY
than any of the inscriptions of Assyria
or the hieroglyphies- of Egypt. 1t con-
SOlidateS a hundred musical inStru-
mentS: it embOdieS the labor of 10000
men. We say it commenced to be made
in the factory eight months ago, but
truly it began to be made in the first
attempts of men some thousands of
years ago. 1t took good deal of me-
chanical skill to gather together the
hundreds of parts after they were
shipped here, and build them into order
and beauty. But think of the thou
sands of Workmen extending over gen.
eratiOnS who spent their lives in
finding out what there is in nature
which can voice its music. before it
had ever entered our thought that we
could have an organ. Were we to at
tempt to paw for all the actual labor and
this production, it would bankrupt Ii 1t
only our church, but our city as well !;
and were each workman to receive his
Just reward we should need to fling UNI
counted gold among the dust Of for
gotten cemeteries. A dozen states and
all the continents of earth have contrib
uted to its material. There have been
used sixteen kinds of wood, eleven
metals and forty different substances to
make this organ. There is white pine
from Michigan, red wood from Cali
fOrnia. ash from Minnesota, walnut from
Kentucky, yellow pine from Georgia,
ebony from the West Indies, mahogany
and rosewood from Brazil, lockwood
from Turkey. Pennsylvania has fur
niShed iron, New York, steel, and Ne
vada, silver. The brass came from Bel
gium, the tin from England. the Shellac
from India, and the ivory from Africa.
The organ was growing in the trees and
asleep in the mines, and it only needed
that these elements should be brought
together. and, 10! muSicl Some OF the
music We have sung is said to have been
written by Dudley Buck, Gonnod and
Shelley. But centuries before these dis
tinguished gentlemen lay asleep in their
cradles, PythagOraS was reading the
PROPHECIES OF THIS MUSIC
in the circling stars and the sibyl voices
of the multitudinOus seas were whiS-
pering to Homer of the glorious days to
come.
The world is, and has always been,
extremely rich III all good things. Men
do not add ANYTHING to the world be-
cause it is the finite expression of God,
and they cannot; but as they develop,
Il mi Nrn nd rfol q
of Him. During the past summer two
nations contended in the arena of the
civilized world for the possession OF
The AngeluS;' and at length the pic
ture brought more than 100000. But
the painter who produced this work re-
ceiVed for it some three hundred and
SO. and his widow had more for one
DAYS exhibition than the painter re.
ceived for his work. The picture has
not grown in half generation, but the
ewes of men have b9en opened. Sc
Paradise Lost 'Sartor Resartus' and q
multitude of the nOblest words have
been spoken into unSympathetic ears
But what shall we say of those vaSteI
revelations of truth and beauty and
melody which have been forever pour
ing out from all places in the universe.
and to which whole generations of men
and women have been entirely blind
and deaf? Our own generation has
walked to the fact that this world is
AN EXCELLENT MACHINE SHOP;
when will the time come that they shall
see in it the superb outlines of Gods
magnificent cathedral?
1T is one of the most suggestive oil
all historical facts that music was never
truly recognized in this world unit
Christianity ennobled the nations. Il
seemed that men must wait for theil
recognition of melody until after the
angels sang above the plains of Beth
lehem. The Greeks had their great
scuIptors and poets; Asia its seerS anG
mystics. but the gospel has furnished
the world its singers. The gospel which
freed men from the power of their pas
and proclaimed redemption, brought
into the realm of art a new power
sufficiently strong to emancipate the
freest aud noblest form of beauty
There is no wicked music :all music is al
pure as the white CLINT of an angel:
wing. Some people have criticised us
because we have concerts in oul
church. But 1t has seemed during tht
past few months that it is very easy fol
fOiue very excellent and DiOus people X