News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1891-09-24

| | draw another argument Tor the I'M
portauce of this exercise from the i'm
pressiveness of this exercise. You
know something of what secular music
has achieved You know it has made
its impression on governments, upon
laws, upon literature, upon whole gen.
erations. One inspiriting national air
is worth thirty thousand men as
standing army. There comes a time
in the battle when one bugle is worth
a thousand muskets | have to tell
you that no nation or church can af
ford to severely economic in music
Many of you are illustrations of what
sacred song can do. Through it you
were brought into the kingdom of
Jesus Christ. You stood out against
the argument and the warning of the
pulpit, but when, in the sweet words OF
Isaac Watts or Charles Wesley or John
Newton or Toplady, 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 trill There was a
Scotch soldier dying in New Orleans
and Scotch minister came In to give
him the consultations of the Gospel
The man turned over on his pillow and
said, Don't talk to me about religion
Then the Scotch minister began to sing
familiar hymn of Scotland that was
composed by David Dickinson, begin
ming with the words:
| Oh mother dear Jerusalem
| When shall come to thee?
He sang it to the tune of Dundee"
and everybody in Scotland knows that;
and as he began to sing the dying sol
der turned over on his pillow, and said
to the minister, "Where did you learn
that2" why" replied the minister,
my mother taught me that" 80 did
mine" said the dying Scotch soldier;
and the very foundation Of his heart
was upturned, and then and there he
| yielded himself to Christ. Oh. IL hss
an irresistible power. Luther's ser
mons have been forgotten, 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 today would
| take these songs of salvation as mes
sages from heaven; for just as certainly
as the birds brought food to Elijah by
| the brook Cherith, so these winged
harmonies, God sent, are flying to your
soul with the bread of life. Open your
mouths and take it, o hungry Elijahsl
THRILLING LINES OF THE OLD HYMNS.
Inaddition to the inspiring music of
our own day we have a glorious inherit
ance of church psalnody which has
come down fragrant with the devotions
of other generations-tunes no more
worn out than they were when our great
grandfathers climbed up on them from
the church pew to glory2 Dear old
souls, how they used to singh When
they were cheerful, our grandfathers
and grandmothers used to sing "Col-
chester" When they were very medi-
tative, then the board meeting house
rang with South Street" and ''St. Ed
monds." Were they struck through
with great tenderness they sang Wood
stock" Were they wrapped in visions
of the glory of the church, they sang
Zion" Were they overborne with the
love and glory of Christ, they sang
! "Ariel" And in those days there were
certain tunes married to certain hymns,
and they have lived in peace a great
while, these two old people, and we
have no right to divorce them. what
10th inina1 fnorafhaT LOT no ms n
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 heaven
ward
have also noticed the power of sa
cred song to soothe perturbation. You
may have come in here this morning
with a great many worriments and
anxieties, yet, perhaps, 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 played the evil
spirit out of him. A Spanish king was
melancholy. The windows were all
| ClOSGd lIC SIT III IIlS NloiIhlGSS ANOt4l
ing could bring him forth until Fara
nell came and discoursed music three
or four days to him. On the fourth
day he looked up and wept and re-
! joiced, 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 anxi-
! a4S1 4 4.
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 arouses to action. A singing
1 church is always a triumphant church
If congregation is silent during the ex-
ercise or partially 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 majority are silent, that
minister of Christ who is presiding needs
to have very strong constitution if he
| does not get the chills. He needs not
only the grace of God, but nerves like
whalebone. 1t is amazing how some
| people, who have voice enough to dis
| charge all their duties in the world,
| when they come into the house of God
have no voice to discharge this duty. /
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.
ALL PURE MUSIC is WHOLESOME.
But must now speak of some of the
obstacles in the way of the advance
ment of this sacred music, and the first
is that it has been impressed into the
service of superstition. l am far from
believing that music ought always to
be positively religious Refined art has
opened places where music has been
secularized, and lawfully so. The
drawing room, the musical club, the |
orchestra, the concert, by the gratifica-
ton of pure taste, and the production
of harmless amusement, and the i'm |
provement of talent, have become |
great forces in the advancement of our
civilization. Music has as much right |
to laugh in Surrey gardens as it has to
pray in st. Paul's.
In the kingdom of nature we have
the glad fling of the wind as well as
the long meter psalm of the thunder;
but while all this is so, every observer
has noticed that this art, which God in
tended for the improvement of the ear,
and the voice, and the head, and the
heart has often been immersed into