Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1891-09-26

dsh tllS squuS NC WOulu iIOt StOp.
You know that i'll Il great multitude Of
churches the choir are expected to do
all the singing and the great mass Of
the people are expected to be silent,
and if you utter your voice you are in
terfering. There they stand. the four.
with opera glass dangling at their side,
singing Rock Of Ages, Cleft for Me"
with the sane spirit that the night be-
fore. on the stage. they took their part
in the Grand Duchess" or Don Clio
vanni
ALI. SHOULD SING WHO CAN.
My Christian friends. lave we n
right TO delegate to Others the dig
charge OF this duty which God de-
mands of us7 Suppose that four wood
tllruslics should propose to do nll tho
singing some bright day when the woods.
are ringing with bir;l voices 1t is de-
cide,l that four wood tlirlslles shall do
all tile singing of the forest. Let all
the other voices keep silent. How beau
tifulIy the four war5eI 1t is really
aEiie music. But how long will you
keep the forest still Why. Christ
would come into that forest and look
up as lie looked through the olives.
and lie would wave his hand and say.
Let everything that hath breath
praise the Lord" and. keeping time
with the stroke Of innunerable wings.
there would be five thousand bird
voices leaping into the harmony.
Suppose this delegation of musical
performers were tried i'll heaven: sup
pose that four choice spirits should try
to do the singing of the upper teIuple.
Hush. now. thrones and domini0ns and
principalities Davidl be still. though
you were the sweet singer of Israel"
Paul keep quiet, though you lave
come TO that crown of rejoicing. Rich
ard Baxter keep still, though this is
the Saints everlasting Rest" Fonr
spirits now do all the singing. But
how long would heaven be quiet1 How
long7 "liallelujak" would cry some
glorified Methodist from under the
altar Praise the Lord! !" would sing
the martyrs from among the thrones.
Thanks be unto God who givet!i US
the victoryl" aAgrcat multitude OF re-
deemed spirits would cry
Myriads OF voices coming into the
harmony. and the one hundred and
forty and four thousand breaking forth
into one accIanation. Stop that loud
singing Stop OH no, they cannot
hear me- You might as well try to
drown the thunder Of the sky. or beat
back tho roar of the sea, for every soul
in heaven has resolved to do it's own
singing. Alas that we should have
tried on EARTH that which they cannot
do in heaven. andsinstead of joining all
our voices in the praise of the Iuost
high God. deegating perhaps to nm
consrcrated men and women this most
solemn and most delightful service.
Now in this church. we lave re-
solved upon the plan Of conducting the
music by organ and cornet We do it for
two reasons--one is that by throwing
tile whole responsibility upon the mass
of the people. making the great null
t;tudo the choir. we might rouse more
hcartiness The congregation coming
7oTltnc5Sabb atf i-dag feel tIat: they cam
not delegate tllis part or tile great serv-
ice to any one else. and so they them
selves assume it. We have had glori-
Gus congregational singing here. People
lave come many miles to hearit They
are not sure about the preaching, but
they can always depend on the singing.
We lave heard the sound coming up
like ''tle voice Of many waters" but it
will be done at Il better rate after
awhile. when we shall realize the height.
and the depth. and the ilunensity of
this privilege.
forgot to state the other reason why
we adopted this plan. That is. we do
not want any choir quarrcs. You know
very well that in scores of churches
there has been perpetual contentionin
that direction. The ouly church fight
that ever occurred under my ministry
was over n melodeon, in my first settle
ment. Have you never been in church
OH 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 WIS
no choir at all. WEyl The leader was
mad. or his assistants were mad. or
they were all mad together. Come of
the choirs are made up of our best
Christian people Some OF the warlneSt
friends have ever had have stood up
in them. Sabbath after Sabbath, coil
scientiously and successfully lead
ing the praises of God. But the
majority of the chors through
ont the land are not made up OF
Christian people and three-fourths
of the church fights originate in the or
gan loft. ] take that back and say
nine-tenths. great many of our
churches are dying OF choirs.
We want to rouse all our families to
tile duty of sacred song. We want
each family OF Our congregation to be
q singing school Childish petulance.
obduracy and mtractability would be
soothed if we had more singing in the
and then our little ones
wonl1 be prepared for the great col-
gregrution OH tile Sabbath day, their
voices uniting with our voices in the
praises OF the Lord.
After saower 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 thesea. So ] would
have all tile families in our church