The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1891-09-24
Power Of Sacred Song
tConiinucd from First Page.l

fAsDIlklUli AA6k -
was sad and angry. and how the boy
David came in and played the evil
spirit out OF him. 4 Spanish king was
melancholy The windows were all
closed. lie sat in the darkness. Moth.
ing could bring him forth until FaSa
nell came and discoGrsed music three
or four days TO lin On the fourth
day he looked up aud wept and re
loiced and the windows were thrown
open. and that which, all the spiendors
of the court could pot 90 the power OF
song accomplished II you have anxi.
cites and worrimeuts. 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.
II also arotises 10 action. 4 singing
church Is always n triumphant church
IL congregation is silent during the ex-
ercise or partially silent, it is the silence
of death. Ii, 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 What's presiding needs
to have q very strong constitution IL 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 1t ought
to sing, that where we have a 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. 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, tho 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 filing of the wind as we'll 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 impressed into
the service OF false religions. False re.
ligions have depended more upon the
hymning of their congregations than
upon the pulpit proclamation of thei,
dogmas. Tartini, the musical com
poser, dreamed one night that satan
snatched from his hand an instrument
and played upon it something very
sweet--a dream that has often beer
fulfilled in our day, the voice and the
instruments that ought to have beer
devoted to Christ, captured from the
church and applied to purposes of su
perstition.
Another obstacle has been an inor
dinate fear of criticism. The vast ma
jority of people singing in church never
want anybody else to hear them sing
Everybody is waiting for somebod,
else to do his duty. If we all sang
then the inaccuracies that are eviden
when only few sing would not b
heard at all; they would be browne.
out. God only asks you to do as wei
as you can, and then, if you get tn
wrong pitch, or keep wrong time
he will forgive any deficiency of the ca
and imperfection of the voice Angel
will not laugh if you should lose you
, place in the musical scale, or come In q
the close bar behind
There are three schools of singing,
am told-the German school, the Ital
, ian school and the French school {
f singing. Now. would like to add
fourth school, md that is the schoe
{ of Christ. The voice of a contrite
+ broken heart, although it may nc
be able to stand human criticism
1 makes better music to Gods ear tina
: the most artistic performance when tn
: heart is wanting. know it is easie
i to preach on this than it is to practic.
: but sing for two reasons-f1rst, b.
| cause like it, and next, because wal
y to encourage those who do not kno
{ how. l have but very little faculty
u that direction, yet am resolved to sin,
= God has commanded it. and / dare NJ
be silent. He calls on the beasts, Q
= the cattle, on the dragons to prai
:, him, and we ought not to be benin
the cattle and the dragons.
Il TIMIDITy AND CAPTIoUsNEss.
n Another obstacle that has been
Il the way of the advancement of til
O holy art has been the fact that the
e has been so much angry discussion {
j. the subject of music. There are tho
o who would have this exercise conduc
y same church there are those who
not like musical instruments, and SO
Is organ and no organ, and there Is
fight In another church it is q que
1t ton whether the music shall be CO
IS Quoted by precentor or by drill,
r. choir. Some want a drilled choir al
"a some want q precentor, and there is
e fight. Then there are those who wou
- like in the church to have the org,
n played in a dull, lifeless, droning wa
wi while there are Others who would ha
C. 1t wreathed into fantasies, branchir
c. out in jets and spangles of sound, rol
at ing and tossing in marvellous convol
or tions, as when, In pyrotechnic displa
Z, after you think a piece is exhausted,
NJ breaks out in wheels rockets, bl,
lights and serDentine demonstrations