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

I mothers used to sing dorchester w non
they were very meditatiye then the board
meeting house rang with ''South Street.
and est. Edmond's." Were they struck
through with great tenderness they sang
Woodstock Were they wrapped in
visions of the glory of the church they
sang ''Zion.'' Were they overborue
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 God hath joined together let no
| man put asunder." But how hard
hearted we must be If all this sacred
music of the past and all the sacred
music of the present does not start US
Heavenward.
l have also noticed tho power of sacred
song to sooth 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
anxietes. 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 closed. He sat in the darkness.
! Nothing could bring him forth until
! Faraneli came and discoursed music for
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 accom-
plished. If you have anxieties and wor-
riments 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 arouses to action. A singing
| church is always triumphant church!
| If a 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 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
| Whalebo 1t is amazing how some
people who have voice enough tosdis-
! charge all their duties in the world when
they come into the house Of God have no
voice to discharge this duty. l really
|
rise up and sing as it ought to sing, that
where we have a hundred souls brought
into the kingdom of Christ there would
be a thousand.
But must now speak of some of the
obstacles in the way of the advancement
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 qualification Of pure taste, and the
production Of harmless amusement and
the Improvement 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:F In the kingdom OF nature
we have the glad fling of the wind as
we'll as the long meter psalm of the thun-
der. But while all this is so, every OBJ
server 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 service of false religions. False
religions have depended more upon the
hymning Of their congregations than
upon the pulpit proclamation of their
dogmas. Tartini, the musical composer,
dreamed one night that satan snatched
from his hand an instrument and played
upon it something very SWeet-a dream
that has often been fulfilled in our day
the voice and the instruments that ought
to have been devoted to Christ, captured
from the church and applied to purposes
of superstition.
Another obstacle has been an inordi-
nate fear Of criticism. The vast ma
iority of people singing in church never
want anybody else to hear them sing.
Everybody is waiting for somebody else
to do his duty. If we all sang, then the
inaccuracies that are evident when only
a few sing would not be evident at all;
they would be drowned out. God only
asks you to do as we'll as you can, and
then if you get the wrong pitch Or keep
wrong timel he will forgive any def
cheney of the ear and imperfection of the
voice.
Another OBSTACLE IN the advancement
of this art has been the erroneous no.
ton that this part of the service could
be conducted by delegation. Churches
have said: ooh, what an easy time we
shall have. This minister will do the
preaching, the choir will do the singing
and we will have nothing to do And
YOU know as we'll as | that there are a
great multitude of churches all through
this land where the people are not ex-
pected to sing, the whole work is done
by delegation of four or six or ten per-
sons, and the audience is silent. In such
a church in Syracuse an old elder per-
sisted in singing, and so the choir APP
pointed commtte to go and ask the
squire if he would not stop. You know
that in great multitude of churches
the choir are expected to do all the sing
ing, and the great mass of the people
are expected to be silent, and if you
utter your voice you are interfering.
There they stand, the four, with opera
glass dangling at their side, singing
! Crock of ages, cleft for me- with the