The Bossier banner., 1891-11-26

1n6O the mouse O1 GOQ nave nO VOICE. W
discharge this duty. l 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 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. Retind art has
opened places where music has been
secularized, and lawfully so. The
drawing-room, the musical club, the
orchestra, the 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 civil
ization. Music has as much right to
laugh in Surrey Gardens as it has to
pray in St. Paurs. In the king
dom of nature, we have the
glad fling of the wind as well as the
long-meter psalm of the thunder. But
while all this is So every observer has
noticed that this art, which God intend-
ed for the improvement of the ear, and
the voice, and the head; and the heart,
has often been impressed into the SER
vice of false religions. False religions
have depended more upon the hymning
of their congregations than upon the
pulpit proclamation of their dogmas
Tartini, the musical composer, dreamed
one night that Satan snatched from his
hand an instrument and played upon
it something very sweet-a dream that
has often been fulfilled in our day, the
voice and the instruments that ought
to have been devoted to Christ, cap
tured from the church and applied to
purposes of superstition.
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 some
body 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 out. God only asks you to do
as well as you can, and then, if you get
the wrong pitch, or keep wrong time,
He will forgive any deficiency of the
ear and inperfection of the voice. An
gels will not laugh if you should lose
your place in the musical scale, or come
Il /. |,
three schools of singing, am told-the
German school, the italian school, and
the French school of singing. Now, l
would like to add a fourth school,
and that is the school of Christ.
The voice of a cont1ite, broken heart,
although it may not be able to stand
human criticism. makes better music to
Gods ear than the most artistic per-
fOrmGnce when the heart is wanting.
know it is easier to preach on this than
it is to practice; but l sing for two rea-
sOns-frst, because | like it, and next,
because | want to encourage those who
do not know how. l have but very lit
tie faculty in that direction, yet l am
resolved to sing. God has commanded
it, and ] dare not be silent. He calls
on the beasts, on the cattle, on the
dragons, to praise Him, and we ought
not to be behind the cattle and the
dragons.
We want to rouse all our families to
the duty of sacred song. We want each
family of our congregation to be sing
ing-school Children pstulance, OBJ
duracy and intractability world 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 our voices in the
praises of the Lord After a 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
want to rouse you to unanimity in
Christian song that has never yet been
exhibited. Come, now! clear your
tbroats and get ready for this duty, or
you will never hear the end of this. l
never shall forget hearing Frenchman
sing the "Marseillaise" on the Champs
Elysees, Paris, just before the battle of
Sedan in 1870. l never saw such
enthusiasm before or since. As
he sang that national air, oh,
how the Frenchmen shouted. Have you
ever, in an English assemblage, heard q
band play God Save the Queen?''
Ifyou have, you know something about
the enthusiasm of a national air. Now,
l tell you that these songs we sing
Sabbath by Sabbath are the national
airs of Jesus Christ and of the King
dom of Heaven, and if you do not learn
to sing them here, how do you ever ex-
pect to sing the song of Moses and the
Lamb? | should not be surprised at all
| if some of the best anthems of
Heaven were made up of scme
of the best songs of esrth.
May God increase our rever-
ence for Christian psalmody and keep