Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1891-09-24

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the Lordn would sing the martyrs from
among the thrones. ''Thanks be unto
| God who giveth us the victoryr' great
multitude of redeemed spirits would cry.
Myrads of voices coming into the har-
mony and the one hundred and forty and
| four thousand breaking forth into one
| reclamation. Stop that loud singing!
Stop! Oh, no, they cannot hear me.
You might as we'll try to drown the
| thunder of the sky or beat back the roar
| of the sea. for every soul in Heaven has
resolved to do it's own singing. Alas!
| that we should have tried on earth that
which they cannot do in Heaven, and in
stead of joining all our voices in the
praise of the Most High God, delegating
perhaps to unconsecrated men and wo-
men this most solemn and most delight
full service.
Now, in this church we have resolved
upon the plan of conducting the music
by organ and cornet We do it for two
reasons: One is that by throwing the
whole responsibility upon the mass of
the people. making the great multitude
the choir, we might rouse more hearth
ness. The congregation coming on the
Sabbath day feel that they cannot dele
gate this part of the great service to any
one else, and so they themselves assume
it. We have had glorious congre-
gational singing here. People have
come many miles to hear it. They are
not sure about the preaching, but they
can always depend on the singing. We
have heard the sound coming up like
1.-The voice of many waters" but it will
be done at better rate after awhile
when we shall realize the height and the
depth and the immensely of this privi-
lege.
l forgot to state the other reason why
we adopted this plan. That is, we do
not want any choir quarrels. You know
very we'll that in scores of churches there
has been perpetual contention in that
direction. The only church fight that
ever occurred under my ministry was
over a melodeOn in my first settlement.
Have you never been in church on the
Sabbath day and heard the choir sing.
and you said, "That is splendid music. -
The next Sabbath you were in that
church and there was no choir at all.
Why? The leader was mad, or his as
sistants were mad, or they were all mad
together. Some OF the choirS are made
up of our best Christian people. Some
of the warmest friends l have ever had
conscientiously and successfully leading
the praises of God But the majority of
the choirs throughout the land are not
made up of Christian people, and three
fourths of the church fights originate in
the organ loft. l take that back and
say nine-tenths. A great many of our
churches are dying OF choirs.
We want to rouse all our families to
the duty of sacred song. We want each
family of our congregation to be a
singing school. Childish petulance, OBJ
duracy and intractabiity would be
soOthed if we had more singing in the
household, and then our little ones would
be prepared for the great congregation
on the Sabbath day, their voices uniting
with our voices in the praises OF the
Lord. After a shower there are scores
of streams that come down the mountain
side with voices ripping and silvery,
pouring into one river and then rolling
in united strength to the sea. So I would
have all the families in our church send
forth the voice of prayer and praise,
pouring it into the great tide of public
worship that rolls on and Oh to empty
into the great wide heart Of God. Never
can we have our church sing as it ought
until our families sing as they ought
There will be a great revolution on
this subject in all our churches. God
will come down by His spirit and rouse
up the old hymns and tunes that have
not been more than half awake since the
time of our grandfathers. The silent
pews in the church will break forth into
music, and when the conductor takes his
place on the Sabbath day there will be a
great host of voices rushing into the
bor AxyC hriSf lion vii 1S Il
have no taste for this service on earth,
what will we do in Heaven, where they
all sing, and sing forever?A
/ want to rouse you to a Lnanimity i'm
Christian song that has never yet been
exhibited. Come now clear your
Threats and get ready for this duty or
you will never hear the end of this / |
never shall forget hearing FrenChman
sing the "Marseilaise" on the Champs |
Elysees, Paris, just before the battle OF |
Sedan in 1870. l never saw such em-
thusiaSm before or since. AS he sang |
that national air, oh! how the French
men shouted! Have you ever In an Eng !
lish assemblage heard a band play "God |
Save the Queen" If you have You
know something about the enthusiasm
of a national air. Now, I tell you that
the songs we sing Sabbath by Sabbath |
are the national airs of
Jesus Christ and of the kingdom of |
Heaven, and il you do not learn to sing
them here, how do you ever expect to
sing the song of Moses and she
Lamb? l should not be surprised at all
if some of the best anthems of Heaven
were made up of some of the best songs |
of earth. May God increase our rover
ence for Christian psalmody, and keep
us from disgracing it by our Indifference
and frivolity. When Cromwel1>s army
went into battle, he stood at the head of
them one day and gave out the long
meter doXology to the tune of the ''Old
Hundredth," and that great most, COM
pany by company, regiment by regiment,
battalion by battalion, joined in the
doxology:
Praise God from whom all blessings flow,