Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1891-10-02


warning of the pulpit but when, in the
sweet words Of Isaac Watts or Charles Wes-
ley or John Newton or TopIady, the love OF
Jesus was sung to your soul then you sur
rendered, as armed castle that could not be
taken by host lifts its window to listen to
harp's thrill. There was a Scotch soldier
dying in New Orleans, and a Scotch minister
came in to give him the consultations Of the
Gospel. TIE man turned over on his pillow
and said, Don't talk to me about religion"
Then the Scotch minister began to sing
familiar hymn o. Scotland that was COM
posed by David Dickinson beginning with
the words:
Oh. mother dear Jerusalem.
When shall come 70 thee?
He sang it to the tune of Dundee" and
everybody in Scotland knows that; and as
he began to sing the dying soldier turned
over on his pillow, and said to the minister:
''Where did you learn thatT "Why," re-
piled the minister, "my mother taught me
that" $50 did mine, said the dying Scotch
sold ;er; and the very foundation OF his heart
was upturned, and then and there he yielded
himself to Christ. Oh. it has an irresistible
power. Luthe rs sermons have been forgot
ten, but his Judgment Hymn" sings on
through the ages and will keep on singing
until the blast of the archangers trumpet
shall bring about that very day which the
hymn celebrates. | would to God that those
who hear me to-day would take these songs
Of salvation as messages from heaven; for
just as certainly as the birds brou 5ht food to
Elijah by the brook Chertth, so these winged
harmonies, God sent, are flying to your soul
with the bread of life. Open your mouths
and take it, 0 hungry Ehjahs!
In addition to the inspiring music Of our
own day we have glorious inheritance Of
church psalmOdy which has come down fra
grant with the devotions Of other genera
tlons-tunes no more worn out than they
were when our t-grandfathers climbed
fro, oh, D.
Dear old souls, how they used to sing When
they were cheerful our grandFathers aud
grandmOthers used to sing Colchester"
When they were very meditative, then the
Street" AID ''St. Edmonds"' Were they
struck through with great tenderness t1ey
sang ''Woo1stock." Were they wrapped in
visions of the glory OF the church. they sang
Zion" Were they overoorne With the love
and glory OF Christ, they sang Ariel" And
in those days there were certain tunes mar
ried to certain hymns, and they have lived
in peace great WHILE these two old people,
and we have no right to divorce them.
''What God hath joined together let no man
put asunder" But how hard-hearted we
must be if all the sacred music Of the past,
and all the sacred music Of the present does
not start US heavenward.
| have also noticed the power of sacred
song to soothe FORMULATION. You may have
come in here this morning with great
many worriments and anxieties vet, per-
haps, in the singing Of the first hymn, you
lost 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 playe1 the evil spirit out Of
him. A Spanish king was melancholy. The
windows were all closed. He sat in the
darkness. Nothing could bring him forth
until Faranei came and discoursed music
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 splendors Of the court could not
do the power Of song accomplished. If you
have anxieties 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.
1t also arousas to action. A singing church
is always triumphant church! II a congre-
cation is silent during the exercise or par
TALLY 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 ma oritY are
SILENT that minister of Christ who is presid-
ing needs to have a very strong constitution
if he does not get the chills. He needs not
only the grace Of God, but nerves like whale
bone It is amazing how some people, who
have voice enough to discharge all their
duties in the world, when they come into the
house of God have no voice to discharge
this duty. l really believe that if the church
of Christ could rise up and sing as it ought
to sing, that where we have hundred souls
brought into the kingdom of Christ there
would be thousand.
But must now speak Of some of the OBJ
Stacles in the way OF the advancement Of this
sacred music, and the first is that it has been
impressed into the service of superstition |
am far from believing that music GU ght al
ways to be positively religious. Refined art
has opened places where music has been Sec
ularized, and lawfully so. The drawing
room, the musical CLUB, the orchestra, the
concert, by the qualification of pure TASTE
and the production Of harmless amusement
and the Improvement of talent have become
great forces in the advancement of our civih-
ZatiOn. Music has as much right to laugh in
Surrey gardens as it has to pray in St
Paurs.
In the kingdom of nature we have the glaC
fling of the wind well 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 improvement OF
the ear, and the voice. and the head, and the
heart, has often been impressed into the ser
vice of false religions. False religions-have
depended more upon the hymning of their
congregations than upon the pul pit proclaim.
alton of their dogmas. Tartiri, the musical
composer, dreamed one night that Satan
snatched from his hand an instrument an
played upon it something very sweet
dream that has often been fulfilled in oul
day, the voice and the instruments that
ought to have been devoted to Christ, cap
tured from the church and applied to pur
poses OF superstition.
Another obstacle has been an inordinate
fear of criticism. The vast majority of pao-
pie singing in church never want anybody
else to hear them sing. Everybody is wait
ing for somebody else to do his duty. If we
all sang, then the inaccuracies that are evil
dent when only a few sing would not be
heard at all; they would be drowned out.
God only asks you to do as well as you can
and than if Won oct the wrong mitch or keeI