News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1890-09-18
OF MUSIC IN HEAVEN.
THE TOPIC OF DR.. T. DE WITT
TALMAGE'S SUNDAY SERMON.

| and associations whose object lt Is, Dy
voice and instrument. to advance the
art of sweet sounds. On Thursday
nights Exeter hall of London used to
resound with the music of first class
performers, who gave their services
gratuitously to the masses, who came
in with free tickets and huzzaed at the
entertainment. At Berlin, at II o'clock
daily, the military band, with sixty or
IA hundred instruments, discourses at
| the royal opera house for the people.
On Easter Sunday in Dresden the
boom of cannon and the ringing
of bells bring multitudes to the
churches to listen to the organ 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 ear with incessant playing
of flute and horn. violin and bassOon.
! At Dusseldorf, once a year, the lovers
| of music assemble and for three or
four days wait upon the great singing
festivals and shout at the close of the
choruses, and greet the successful COM
petitors as the prizes are-distributed-
cups ard vases of silver and gold. All
| our American cities ut times resound
with orchestra and oratorio. Those
who can sing well or play skillfully up
on instruments are greeted with vocifera-
ton and garlanded by excited admirers.
THE ECsTATIC DELIGHTS OF MUSIC.
There are many whose most ecstatic
delight is to be found in melodies, and
all the splendor of celestial gates and
all the Iusciousness of twelve man
ner of fruits, and all the rush of floods
from under the throne of God would
not make heaven for them if there
were no great and transporting harmO-
MES Passing along our streets in the
hour of worship you hear the voice of
sacred melody, although you do not
enter the building. And passing along
the streets of heaven we hear from the
temple of God and the Lamb the
breaking forth of magnificent jubilate.
We may not yet enter in among the
favored throng, but God will not deny
us the pleasure of standing while on
the outside 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 it 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, and judging from the
glorious things now Transporting in Gods
world. and the ever accommodating tri-
jumps of the Messiah, that was the last
half hour that heaven will ever be
silent
Mark the fact that this was new
song. Sometimes | have in church
been foated away upon some great
choral, in which all our people seemed
to mingle their voices, and | have in
the glow of my emotions said: Surely
this is music good enough for heaven. y
| Indeed do not believe that ''Luther's
! Hymn," or 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 Il 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 l have sometimes
though that this new song" may be
partly made up of sweet strains Of
earthly music mingled in eternal
choral. But it will, after ALL be new
song. This do know, that in sweet
ness and power it will be something
that ear never heard All the skill Of
the oldest harpers of heaven will be
flung into it. All the love of God.
heart will ring from it. In its cadence:
the floods will clap their hands, and il
will drop with the sunlight of everlast
ing day and breathe with odors from
the blossoms of the tree of life. "A
new song"-just made for heaven.
| HOW THE GREAI COMPOSEKS WhOTE
Many earthly songs are written by
composers just for the purpose of max
ing tune, and the land is flooded will
note books in which really valuable
tl@les are the exception. But once il
while man is wrought up by some
great spectacle. or moved by some ter
rible agony, or transported by some ex
quisite gladness, and he sits down tt
write tune or hymn, in which every
note or every word is a spark dropped
from the forge of his own burning emo
tions. So Mendelssohn wrote, and 81
Beethoven and SO Charles Wesley
Cowper, depressed with misfortune
until almost insane, resolved on sui
eide. and asked the cab driver to taxi
him to Il certain place where he ex
pected to destroy his own life. TIL,
cab driver lost his way, and Cowpe
began to think of his sin and wen
back to his home and sat down ant
wrote
God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform:
He plants his footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm
Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
The clouds you so much dread
Are big with mercy, and shall break
In blessings on your head
Mozart composed his own requiem
and said to his daughter Emily, "Pla.
that" and while Emily was playing thu
requiem Mozart's soul went up on thu
wave of his own music into glory
Emily looked around, and he- fathe
} was dead.
HEAVENS NEW SONG.
This new song of heaven was no
composed because heaven had nothin;
else to do, but Christ, in memory o
cross and crown, of manager and throne
Of earth and heaven, and wrought upol
by the raptures of the great eternity
poured this from his heart, made it fo
the armies of heaven to shout in cele
bratiOn of victory, for worshipers t
{ chant in their temple services, for tn
l innuumerable home circles of HEAVIER
to sing in the house of man
mansions. If n new tune b
, started in church there is onl
) here and there person that can sin
: 1t. 1t is some time before the congre
cation learn new tune. But not S
j with the new ,song of heaven. TIL
children who went up today from tn
waters of the Ganges are now singin
: it. That Christian man or woman VIII