The southern argus., 1891-09-24

"oulu De n7e thouSanu D1ro voices lean.
ing into harmony.
Four spirits now do all the sino,r.
But how long would Heaven be ouiefp
How long? tHallelujahr' would crr
some glorifed Methodist from under
the altar. Praise the Lord" wonld
sing the martyrs from among the
thrones. Thanks be unto God. who
giveth us the victory" great multi.
tude of redeemed spirits would crv
Myriads of voices coming into the har-
mony and the one hundred and forty
and four thousand breaking forth into
one reclamation. Stop that loud sing.
ing! Stop! o no, they can not hear
me. You might as well try to drown
the thunder of the sky, or beat back
the roar of the sea, for every soul in
Heaven has resolved to do its own sing
ing. Alas! that we should have tried
on earth that which they can not do in
Heaven, and, instead of joining all our
voices in the praise of the most high
God, delegating perhaps to unconse-
Grated men and women this most solemn
and most delightful service.
| Now, in this church, we have resolved
upon the plan of conducting the music
| by organ and cornet. We do it for two
reasons. One is that by throwing the
whole responsibility upon the mass of
the people, making the great N multitude
the choir, we might rouse more hearth
ness, The congregation coming on the
Sabbath day feel that they cannot
delegate this part of the great service
to anyone else, and SO they themselves
assume it. We have had a glorious con-
gregational singing here. People have
come many miles to hear it. They are
not sure about the preaching, but they
can always depend upon the singing.
We have heard the sound coming up
like 1.-THE voice Of many waters" but it
will be done at better rate after
height and the depth and the immen-
sity of this privilege.
| forgot to state the other reason why
we adopted this plan. That is, we do
not want any choir quarrels You know
very well that in scores of churches
there has been perpetual contention in
that direction. The only church fight
that ever occurred under my ministry
was over melodeon, in my first settle
ment. Have you never been in church
on the Sabbath day, and heard the
choir sing and you said: THAT is
splendid music" The next Sabbath
you were in that church, and there was
no choir at all. Why? The leader was
mad, or his assistants were mad, or
they were all mad together. The ma
jority of the choirs throughout the land
are not made up of Christian people,
and threefourths of the church fights
originate in the organ loft. | take that
back and say nine-tenths. A great
many of our churches are dying of |
choirs.
We want to rouse all our families to
the duty of sacred song. We want each |
family of our congregation to be a
singing school. Childish petulance,
obduracy and intractab ility would be
soothed if we had more singing in the |
household, and then our little ones |
would be prepared for the great con-
gregation on the Sabbath day, their
voices uniting with other voices in the |
praises of the Lord After shower |
there are scores of streams that come |
down the mountain side with voices |
ripping and silvery, pouring into one
river and then rolling in united |
strength to the sea. So, / would have
all the families in our church send
forth the voice of prayer and praise,
pouring it into the great tide of public
worship that rolls on and on to empty
into the great, wide heart of God.
Never can we have our church sing as
it ought until our families sing as they
ought.
There will be great revolution on
this subject in all our churches. God
will come down by His spirit and rouse
up the old hymns and tunes that have
not been more than half awake since
the time of our grandfathers The ST.
lent pews in the church will break
forth into music, and when the con-
ductor takes his place on the Sabbath
day there will be great host of voices
rushing into the harmony. My Chris
tan friends, if we have no taste for
this service on earth, what will we do
in Heaven, where they all sing, and
sing forever.
~ y
Christian song that has never yet been
exhibited Come. now. clear your
throats and get ready for duty, or you
will never hear the end of this | never
shall forget hearing Frenchman sing
the " Marseillaise on the Champs
Elysees, Paris just before the battle
If Sedan in 1870. | never saw such en-
.husiasm before or since. AS he sa?g
hat national air, o. how the French
shouted! Have you ever in an English
lssemblage heard n band play, God
Save the Queen?" If you have, you
know something about the enthusiasm
If national air. Now, tell you that
.hese songs we sing Sabbath by Sabbath
ire the national airs of Jesus Christ
md of the Kingdom of Heaven.
md if you do not learn to sing them
lere, how do you ever expect 20 sing
he song of Moses and the Lamb? l
should not be surprised at all if some
# the best anthems of Heaven were
made up of the best songs Of earth
Nav God increase our reverence for