Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1891-09-25
TALMAGE TALKS MUSIC.
THE TABERNACLE RINGS WITH
SWEET MELODIES,
Lending Enchantment 20 Last SUM
days serm 1n-The worth of Music
as Viewed by the Great Divine
"The Voice OF Many Waters.o


The servi ,es were verltable musical
festivals. While the regular musical
programme at the tabernacle is al
ways attractive, that of to-day was
exceptionally beautiful, the congrega-
tional singing, offertories, and inter
ludes being rendered with marvellous
volume and expression. DIR. Talmage s
sermon, which was appropriate TO the
occasion. was on the text, Genesis 4:
81: "His brothers name was Jubal: he
was the father of all such as handle
the harp and organ"
There has been much discussion
as to where music was born. L think
that at the beginning, when the morn
ing stars sang together, and all the
suns of God shouted for Joy, that the
earth heard the echo. The cloud on
which the angels stood TO celebrate the
creation, was the birthplace of song.
Inanimate nature is full of Gods
stringed and wind instruments.
Silence itself-perfect silence
is only a musical rest in God S great
anthem of worship. Wind among the
leaves, insects humming in the sum-
mer air, the rush of billow upon the
beach, the ocean far out sounding its
everlasting palm, the bobolink on the
edge of the forest, the quail whistling
up from the grass, are music. On
Blackwelrs Island | h ard. coming
from u window of the lunatic asylum:
a very sweet song. twas sung by one
who had lost her reason, and l have
come to believe that even the de-
ranged and disordered elements of
nature W ould make music to our ear,
if we only had acuteness enough to
listen. / suppose that even the sounds
in nature that are discordant and re-
pulsive make harmony in Gods ear.
You know that you may come so near
to an orchestra that the sounds are
painful instead of pleasurable; and
think we stand so near devastating
storm aud frightful whirlwlnd, that
we cannot hear that which makes TO
Gods ear and the ear OF the spirits
ADORE us, music as complete as it is
tremendous.
The day of judgment, which will be
day of uproar and Jumult. suppose
will bring no dissonance TO the ears of
those who can calmly listen; although
it be as when some great performer is
executing boistero1s piece of music,
he sometimes breaks down the instru-
ment on which he plays, so it may be
on that last day that the grand march
of God, played by the fingers of thun-
der, and earthquake, and conflagration,
may break down the world upon
which the music is executed. Not
only is inanimate nature full of
music, but God has wonderfully or
ganized the human voice, so that in
.he plainest throat and lungs there are
fourteen direct muscles which can
make over sixteen thousand different
sounds, and there are thirty indirect
muscles which can make, IL has been
estimated, more than one hundred and
seventy-th ee millions of soundsl
Now, 1 say, when God has so con-
structed the human voice, and when he
has filled the whole earth with har-
mony, and when he recogni ed it in the
ancient temple, have a right to come
to the conclusion that God loved music.
/ propose, this morning in setting
apart this organ for sacred use, to
speak about sacred music; first show
ing you its importance, and then stat
ing some of the obstacles to its adj
vancement.
draw the first argument for the inn
portance of sacred music from the fact
that God commanded it. Through Paul
he tells us to admonish one another in
psalms, and hymns, and spiritual
songs; and through David he
cries out: ''Sing We TO God, all
we kingdoms of the earth"
And there are hundreds of other pas
sages | might name, proving that it 8
as much mans duty to sing as it is
his duty to pray. Indeed, / think
there are more commands in the Bible
to sing than there are to pray God
not only asks FOR the human voice but
for instruments of music He asks for
the cymbal, and the harp, and the
trumpet as well as the organ. And
suppose that in the last
days of the church, the harp, the Lutte,
the trumpet, and all the instruments
oil music whether they have been in the
service of righteousness, or sin will be
brought by their masters and laid
down at the feet OF of Christ, and then
sounded in the church triumph on
her way from suffering into glory.
praise We the Lordr' Praise him With
your voices. Praise him with stringed
instruments and with organs.
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 coulu
not be taken by host, lifts its win.
dow to listen 20 harps trill. There
was 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 a familiar hymn
of Scotland, that was composed by
David Dickinson, beginning with the
words:
oh, mother, dear Jerusalem,
When shall come 10 thee2
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 that?" "Why," replied the min
lister, 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 vielded hifneelf ~ Chriat Nh