Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1891-09-25

as a standing army There comes time
in the battle when one bugle is worth :
thousand muskets. have to tell you that
no nation, no church can afford to severely
economic in music
THE MOTHERS SONG
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, il
the sweet words of Isaac Watts or ChaEles
| Wesley or John Newton or Toplady the
love of Jesus was sung to your soul
| then you surrendered as armed castle that
/ could not be taken by a host lifts its win
! dow TO listen to a harps trill There was
I a Scotch schiller dying in New Orleans and
! a Scotch minister came in to give him the
! consultations OF the Gospel The man
I 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. beginning with the
words;
Oh mother. dear Jerusalem,
When shall come to thee2
He sang it 20 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" re.
piled 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 10 Christ Oh, it has an
irresistible power Luther's sermons have
been forgotten, but his Judgment Hymn"
sings on through the ages, and will keep
on singing until the blast Of the archangel's
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 messages
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, oh.
hungry Eliiahs
In addition to the inspiring music Of ouI
own day we have a glorious inheritance OF
church psalmOdy which has come down
fragrant with the devotions of other gen
eratiOns-tunes no more worn out than
they were when our great grandfathers
climbed up on them from the church pew
to gloryl Dear old souls, how they used
to singi When they were cheerful our
grandfathers and grandmothers used to
sing Colchester" When they were very
meditative then the board meeting house
rang with South Street" and est. Ed :
mond'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" We're |
they overbOrne with the love and glory Of /
Christ they sang Ariel" And in those 1
days there were certain tunes married to
certain hymns, and they have lived in |
peace a great while, these two old people, /
and sc 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
IT CHARMS THE MELANCHOLY.
| have also noticed the power Of sacred |
song to so6th perturbation. You may have
come in here this morning with a great /
many worriments aud anxieties. yet 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 tue
boy David came in and played the evil
spirit out of him. A Spanish king was
melancholy. The windows were all closed.
lie 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, ana the windows were
thrown open, and that which all the splen-
doris 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.
It also arouses to action y singing
church is always triumphant church,
Il "A congregation is silent during the exsr-
else, 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 "a very
strong constitution If he does not get the
chills lie needs not only the grace of
God, but nerves like whalebone. IL is
how some people who have voice
enough TO discharge all their duties in the
world when they come into the house of
God have 10 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 a hundred souls
brought into the kingdom Of Christ there
would be a thousand.
But ! must now speak of sOale of the Oh
stacles in the way Of the advancement of
this sacred music; and the first Is that it
has been Impressed into the service of
am far from believing that
music ought always to be positively re-
ligious. Refined art has opened places
where music has been secularized, and law
fully so. The drawing room. the musical
T.,I . Ia m bV the Z
Of pare taste. and the prOduc-
zion OF harmless amusement and the i'm
OF talent have become great
forces in the advancement of our civiliza-
tiou Music has rs much right to laugh in
Surrey gardens as it has to pray in st.
Paurs In the kingdom of nature we have
the glad filing OF the wind rs well as the
long meter psalm of the thunder But
while all this is so, every observer has no
iced 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 relig
oAs False religions have depended more
upon the hyinning of their congregations
than upon the pulpit proclamation OF their
iogmas Tartini the musical composer
dreamed one night that satan snatched
from his hand an instrument and played
upon it something very sweet-a dream
hat has often been fulfilled in our day
.he voice aud the instruments that ought to
have been devoted to Christ, captured from
5he church and applied to purpoSsS Of su-
oerstition.
ISscoRD AMONG MUSICIANS.
Another obstacle has Leen an inordinate
lear of criticism The vast majority Of
people singing in church never want any
body 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 few sing would
not be heard at all they would be drowned
1ut. God only asks you to do Is well as
gou can, and then II you get the wrong
pitch or keep wrong time, be will forgive
any deficiency Of the ear and imperfection
If the voice. Angels will not laugh II you
should lose your place in the musical
scale or come in ut the close bar behind.
Vhera nra three gchnO1s pf singing I am