The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1891-12-25

the wave of tuneful praise rolls from gallery
to gallery and from pulpit to rafter. Human
hearts and human souls are thrilled with Its
sympathetic vibrations, and caught up by
that tempest of song are borne by it into a
better being and for that hour at least are
elevated and ennobed Why it's con-
tagiOus. You cannot help singing. We
suddenly found book thrust into our
hands, where it come from L don't know,
and the next minute we were singing as en-
Enthusiastically as the best Baptist among
them. At the end of the verse; at wave OF
the baton, the great church becomes as ST.
lent rs the grave, while Mr.. Spurgeon reads,
the next one, and then they all sing again,
and so on until the end OF the hymn.
That's congregational singing, that is
congregational singing. That is singing
that becomes par: and parcel of the wOr-
ship Of the day. Can you suppose for an
instant but that il arouses their enthusiasm
and increases their interest in all the other
services of the hour, and farther is there any
question but that it arouses and eXalts the
preacher as well, and is great factor in the
production Of his powerful sermons? We
may not care to initiate his method in detail.
We may not desire the Interruptions and
and the lining of the hymns where all have
books, but no one who knows of Mr.. Spur
geons success in the ministry can doubt for
one moment the success Of the method with
him.
That is one way to conduct the song SER
vice Of the church that is very satisfactory to
the pew | represent. 1t was also my good
fortune to be present at another and a very
different service, one that made an impress
sion on me | shall never forget, the service
of the Church of England; the High Church.
Not the service of st. Paurs or Westminster
in London, that is choir service, the con-
gregatons are largely composed of strangers
and tourists who are not sufficiently familiar
with the forms of the service to take part.
But the service of the smaller cathedrals, in
which, like our own churches the cOngrega-
tions are the same week after week and year
after year. The greater part of the service
before the sermon is q song service; even the
set prayers of the church are chanted by the
rector and the responses are sung by the
choir and congregation. 1t is singularly
beautiful and apprOpriate; that responsive
amen, sung by the subdued voice Of great
congregation. attempted to describe 1t to
you in one of my lectures after my return.
l will not weary you by repeating 1t now;
but still, after the lapse of two and half
years the memory of ii seems as beautiful to
Inc as it did the day after had listened to
| it. shall always carry with me the recOl-
| lection of their chanting the Lords Prayer
| at the close of an afternoons song service.
, 1t seemed to me then to bc the most beauti-
! full, the most appropriate. the most devOut
prayer had ever listened TO, and so 1t i'm
presses me still. Near by, kneeling on the
marble floor, q young man chanted tenor, q
little farther down the row an old lady soft
ly sang soprano, and on the other side no
bust, deep chested Englishman sang deep,
sonorous bass. 1t seemed to me that my
friend and myself were abOut the only silent
persons in the assembly. Silent, but not
unresponsive, for every nerve in my body
I was vibrating in sympathy and every relig-
| iOus instinct of my soul was exalted as l lis4
| tened. Why were we so impressed. What
was it that made such an impression upon
us. For have made this reference to far
away people and foreign church to point a
moral, not simply to adOrn a tale, We
heard the same service afterwards in st,
Paul's and Westminster, where the chOirs
are among the finest in the world, but the
people did not join and it impressed us as
more of a display than as hearty devotion,
and that illustrates the point of all my argu-
ment. The one was a lip service, performed
by but few, who sang because 1t was their
business to sing. The other was service
of devotion by an humble, thankful suppli-
ent congregation.
That kind of service we cann0t have.
1t is not in line with our customs and tradi-
tions and nowhere, either could it be so eff
fective as in an old cathedral, with its angles
its arches, and its alcOves, that send forth,
in sympathetic revibrations, the storied
echoes of centuries OF song.
But this much any church can have that
desires it. That is, an abundance of such
hymns as the church loves to sing, A cor
dial invitation from the pulpit to join in the
singing when hymn is given out to en-
courage the timid, and q choir whose chief
ambition shall be to encourage collective
song service.