Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1890-09-13
NEW SONG OF HEAVEN.
Dr. Talmage's Description of Celestial
Melodies.
Preached at the Academy of Music.
Brooklyn, N. Y.
TEXT: "And they sang new song.n Rev.
". Q.

lea have conservatories of music and asSoci-
ations whose object it is by voice and instru-
ment to advance the art of sweet sounds. On
Thursday night Exeter Hall, of London, used
to resound with the music of first-class per-
formers, who gave their services gratuitously
to the masses, who came in with free tickets
and huzzaed ct the entertainment. At Ber-
lin at IL o'clock daily the military band, with
sixty or hundred instruments, discoursesat
the Royal Opera House for the people. On
Easter Sunday in Dresden the boom OF
cannon and the ringing Of bells bring null
titudes to the churches to listen to the or
gan peals and the exciting sounds of
trumpet and drum. When the great fair
day of Leipsic comes the bands of music
from far and near gather in the street and
bewilder the car with incessant playing of
flute and horn, violin and bassoon. At Dus-
seldorf once n year tho lovers Of music as
semble and for three or four days wait upon
the great singing festivals, and shout at tho
close of tho choruses, AMI greet the success
full competitors as t 20 prizes are distributed
cups and vases OF silver and gold. All our
American cities at times resound with Or
chestra and oratorio. Those who can sing
well or play skilfully upon instruments are
greeted with vociferation and garlanded by
excited admirers.
There are many whose most ecstatic de-
light is 10 be found in melodies, and all the
splendor of celestial gates. and all the lus-
clOusness OF twelve manner OF fruits. and all
the rush of floods from under the throne OF
God would not make heaven for thom il
there were no great aud Transporting har-
monies. Passing along our streets in the
hour of worship you hear tho voice of sacred
melody, although YOU do not entor the
building. And passing along the street of
heaven we hear, from the temple of God and
the Lamb, the breaking forth of magnificent
Tr11f OF M faf,t o,,to ff,
the favored throng, but God will not deny us
the pleasure of standing a while on the out
side to hear. John listened to it a great
while ago, and they sang a new song."
Let none aspire to that blessed place who
have no love for this exercise, for although
1t is many ages since the thrones were set,
and the harps were strung, there has been no
cessation in the song, excepting once for
about thirty minutes; aud, judging from the
glorious things now Transporting in Gods
world, and the ever accommodating triumphs
of the Messiah, that was tho last half hour
that heaven will ever be silent.
Mark the fact that this was new song.
Sometimes ] have in church been floatel
AWAY upon somo great choral, in which oil
our people seemed to mingle their voices,
and have, in the glow Of my emotions, said:
Surely this is music good enough for
heaven" Inaeel | do not believe that
"Luther's Hymn" Coronation or 'Old
Hundred" or Mount Pisgah' would sound
i'll if spoken by sainted lips or thrummed
from seraphic harps. There are many of our
fathers and mothers in glory who would be
slow to shut heavens gate against these old
time harmonies But this we are told is
new song. Some of our greatest anthems
and choralS are compositions from other
tunes-the sweetest parts of them gathered
up into the harmony; and | have
sometimes thought that this 'new
song" may be partly made up of
sweet strains OF earthly music mingled in
eternal choral. But it will, alter all be
new song. This do know. that in sweetnes
and power it will be something that the ear
never heard. All the skill of tho oldest harp
crs Of heaven will be flung into it. All tie
love of Gods heart will ring from it. In its
cadeDces the foods will clap their hands, and
it will drop with the sunlight of everlasting
day and breathe with doors from tho bios
SONS of the tree Of life. ~ new song''-just
made for heaven.
Many earthly songs are written by COM
posers just for the purpose of making tune,
aud the lanl is flooded with note books in
which really valuable tunes arc the excep-
ton. But once in while man is wrought
up by some great spectacle, or moved by
some terrible agony, or transported by some
exquisite giadnesS, and he sits down to write
tuno or a hymn in which every note or
every word is a spark dropped from the forge
OF his own burning emotions. So Mendels-
sohn wrote, and so Beethoven, and SO Charles
Wesley. Cowper, depressed with misfor-
tunes until almost insane, resolved on suicide,
and asked the cab driver TO take him to q
certain place where he expected to destroy
his own life. The cab driver lost his way,
and Cowper began to think of his sin, AMI
went back TO his home and sat down and
wrote:
Col moves in mysterious way
His wonders n perform;
He plants Ills footsteps in the sea
And rides nPon the storm.
Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take,
The clouds yon 80 much dread
Are big with mercy and shall break
In blessings on your head.
Mozart composed his own requiem an |
sai his daughter Emily, "Play that"
A. while l'niiy was playing the requiem
kozart's soul went up on the wave of his
own music into glory. Emily looked around
and her father was dead.
This new song OF heaven was not COM
posed, because heaven had nothing else to
do, but Christ in memory of cross and
crown, OF mansor and throne, Of earth and
heaven, and wrought upon by tho rapturas
OF Tho great eternity, poured this from His
heart, made it for the armies OF heaven TO
shout in celebration OF victory, for worship
crs 60 chant in their temple services for
the innumerable home circles of heaven TO
sing in the house of many mansions. If a
now tune be started in church there is only
here and there person who can sing it.
it is some time before the congregation
learns now tula. But not 50 with the
new song of heaven. The children who
went up to-day from the waters of tho
Ganees ara now singing it, That Christian
man or woman who a few minutes ago
departed from this very street has joined
1t, All know it--those by the gates, those
on the river bank, those in the temple. Not
feeling their way through it, or halting or
going back, as il they never before had sung
it but with O full, round voice they throw
their soul into this new song Ii some Sab
bath day few notes of that anthem should
travel down the air we could not sing it, No
organ could roll its thunder No harp could
catch it trill. No lip could announce
its sweetness. Transfxed lost enchanted
dumb, we could not hear 1.-THE faintest note
OF the new song Yet willie ! speak heavens
cathedral quakes under it, and seas of glory
bear it from beach TO beach. and ten thou
sand times ten thousand, and thousands of
thousands sing 1.-THE new song"
Further, 1t is q commemorative song. We
are distinctly told that it makes a reference
to past deiverances. Oh, how much have
:
ness through which on earth they passed.
and 1t is night song. That one was killed
ut Yorktown, and with him it is battle
song. That one was impriSonel for Christs
sake, and with him it is a prison song. Tint
was Christian sailor boy that hal his back
broken on the ships halyards, and with him
LISA sailors song That ono burnel at
Smthfield and with him it is f fire song
Oh! how they viii sing of foods waded, Of
fires endured, of prosecutions suffered, of
grace extended Song OF hail Song OF sword :
Song of hot lea II Song of axol As waen
the organ pipes neal out soma great har-
mony there comes occasionally the souu OF
the trenulant,, weeping tarou "a the cIlen-
ces, adding cxquistaneSs to ths perform
anceS, so amid the stupendous acclaim of
the heavenly worShipers shall come tremu-
lous remambrances of past en- lurance ID
in.s a sweetness and glory to the triumphal
strain. SO the glorified mother will sing of
the cradle that death robbed, AMI the en-
throued spirit from the almhouse will sing
OF lifetime Of want. Col may wips away
oil the tears, but not the me nory of tho
grief that started them
Further, it will be an accompanied song
Some have great prejudice against musical
instruments; and even among those who like
them there is an idea that they are unauth Dr.
izad. love the cymbals for Israel clapped
them in triumph at the Rel Sea love the
harp, for David struck it in praising tn,
Lori. love the trumpet, for we are told
that it shall awake the dead | love all
striuged instruments and organs for Col
demands that we shall praise Him on stIingei
instruments and organs. There is in such
music much to suggest the higher worship,
for read that when He had taken the BOOK
the four-and-twenty elders fell down before
the Lamb, having every one of them "harps, -
and u heard the voice of the harpers harp
ing with their harms and ~ 81 W then, tn :