The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1891-05-14

| liallklucellSe allu 10 CaSSla, but never
to nightshade. It is a bundle OF
myrrh. It is a dash OF holy light. 1t
is a sparkle OF cool fountains. It is
an opening OF opaline gates. 1t is a
collection OF spices. Would God that
we were as wise in taking spices to our
Divine King as Queen Balkis was wise
in taking the spices to the earthly
Solomon! What many of us most
need is to have the humdrum out Of
our religion. The American, and
English, and Scottish church
| WILL DIE OF HUMDRUM
unless there be change An editor
from San Francisco q few weeks ago
wrote me saying he was getting up for
his paper symposium from many
clergymen discussing among other
things. 'Why do Not People Go to
| Church?' and he wanted my opinion
and gave it in one sentence: People
do not 60 to church because they can
not stand the humdrum The fact is
that most people have so much hum
drum in
THEIR WORLDLY CALLING,
that they do not want to have added
the humdrum OF religion. We need in
our sermons and exortations and
songs and prayers more OF what
Queen Balkis brought to Solomon
namel y more spice.
must confess that a great deal OF
the religion OF this day is utterly insip-
id. There is nothing piquant or ele-
waiting about it. Men and women go
around humming psalms in a minor
key. and culturing melancholy, and
their worship has in it more signs
than rapture. We do not doubt their
piety. Oh, no. But they are sitting
at q feast where the cook has forgot
ten to season thefood. Everything is
flat in their experience and their con-
versation. Emancipated from sin,
and death, and hell, and on their way
to q magnificent heaven, they act as
though they were trudging on toward
an everlasting Botany bay. Religion
does not seem to agree with them. 1t
seems to catch in the windpipe and
become a tight strangulation instead
OF an exhilaration. All the infdel
books that have been written, from
Voltaire down to Herbert Spencer,
have not done so much damage to
our Christianity as lugubrious Chris
tlans. Who wants a religion woven
out Of shadows OF the night? Why go
growing on your way to celestial en-
thronement? Come out of that cave,
and sit down in the warm light OF the
Sun OF Righteousness. Away with
your odes to melancholy and Her.
vey's ''Meditations Among the
Tombs."
Then let our songs abound,
And every tear be dry;
We're marching through Emmanuel's
ground
10 fairer worlds on high.
have to say, also, that we need to
put more spice and enlivenment in our
religious teaching; whether it be in the
prayer-meeting, or in the Sabbath
school, or in the church. We
MINISTER'S NEED MORE FRESH AIR
and sunshine in our lungs, and our
heart. and our head.
More than that. we, want more life
and spice in our Chistian work The
poor do not want so much to be
groaned over as sung to. With the
bread, and medicines, and the gar
n1ents you give them, let there be an
accompaniment of smiles and brisk
encouragement.
We need more spice and enlivement
in our church music. Churches sit
discussing whether they shall have
cholrs or precentors, or organs, or
bass-viols, or comets; say, take that
which will bring out the most inspir-
ing music. If we had half as much
zeal and spirit in our Sabbath schools,
it would not be long before the whole
earthwould quakewith the comingGod.
Why, in most churches nine-tenths of
the people do not sing; or they sing so
feebly that the people at their elbows
90 not know that they are singing.
! People mouth and humble the praises
OF God; but there is not more than
one out of a hundred who makes "a
| joyful noise" unto the Rock of our
Salvation: Sometimes when the con-
gregation forgets itself, and it is alb
sorbed in the goodness OF God or the
glories OF heaven, get an intimation
| OF what church music will be hun
dred years from now, when the COM
ing generation will wake up to it's
| duty.
Ipromise a high spiritual blessing to
any one who will sing in church, and
who will sing so heartily that the peo-
pie all around cannot help but sing,
Wake up! all the churches from Ban
gor to San Francisco, and across
Christendom. It is not a. matter OF
religious duty, Oh, for fifty times
more volume of sound. German
chorals in German cathedrals surpass
us, and yet Germany has received
nothing at the hands of God COM
pared with America; and Dug hit the &C
claim in Berlin be louder than that
In Brooklyn? Soft, long-drawn-o out
music is appropriate for the drawing
room and appropriate for the concert;
but St. John gives an idea Of the SON
OrOus and
RESONANT CONGREGATIONAL SINGING
appropriate for churches when, in lis
tening to the temple service of heaven,
he says: II heard great voice as the
voice OF great multitude, and as the
voice ofmany waters, and as the voice
OF mighty thunderings. Hallelujah, for
the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.' -
Some one could not understand why
an old German Christian scholar used