Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1893-05-20
nv. DR.. 7ALMAGR.
Tbs Eminent Brooklyn Divine's Sun.
day Sermon.


Darid droided out Of his presence i,cice."--
Samuel xviii, l0-11.
What a spectacle for all ages! Saul, q
giant, and David, a dwarf. An unfortunate
war ballad had been composed and sung
euiogizing David above Saul. That song
threw Saul into a paroxysm OF rage, which
brought on one OF his old spells of insanity to
which he had been subject. II one 10 disposed
to some physical ailment and he get real
mad. it is very apt to bring on one Of his old
attacks. Saul Is a raving maniac, and hd
goes to initiating the false prophets or sibylsl
who kicked and gesticulated wildly when
they pretended to be foretelling events.
Whatever the physicians of the royal stat
may have prescribed for the disordered king
I know not, but David prescribed music.
Having keyed up the harp, his fingers began
to pull the rhythm from the vibrating strings.
Thruml Thrum! Thrum! No use. The
king will not listen to the exquisite cadences.
He lets fly a jayelin, expecting to pin the
minstrel to the wall, but David lodged the
weapon and kept on, for he was confident
that he could, as before, subdue Saurs bad
spirit by music.
Again the jayelin is flung, and David
lodges it and departs. What contrast |
Roseate David with harp and enraged Saul
with javelin. Who would not rather play
the one than fling the other? But that was
not the only time in the worlds history that
harp and jayelin met. Where their birth
place was cannot declare. 1t is said that
the Tyre was first suggested by the tight
drawing OF the sinews OF a tortoise across its
shell, and that the flute was first suggested
by the blowing o. the wind across bed oil
reeds, and that the ratio of musical intervals
was first suggested to Pythagoras by the diff.
ferent hammers on the anvil of the smithy,
but the harp seems to me TO have dropped out
OF the sky and the javelin to have been thrown
up from the pit
The oldest stringed instrument ofthe world
is the harp. Jubal sounded his harp In the
book OF Genesis. David played many Of his
psalms on the harp while he sang them. The
captives in Babylon hung their harps on the
willows Josephus celebrated the invention
of the 10-strinyed harp. Timotheus, the
Milesian, was imprisoned for adding the
twelfth string to the harp. because too much
luxury of sound might enervate the people.
Egyptian harps. Scottish harps, Welsh harps,
Irish hsrps have been celebrated. What an
inspired trianglei
Everlasting honors to Sebastian Erard,
who by pedals invented called the foot as
well as the hand to the harp. When the
harpiscord maker for whom he worked dis
charged him for his genius, the employer
not wanting to be eclipsed by his subordi-
nate. Erard suffered from the same passion
of jealousy that threw Saul of my text into
the fit during which he flung javelin at the
harpist. The harp is almost human, as you
find when you put your finger on its pulse.
Other instruments have louder voice and
may be better for battle charge, but what
exquisite sweetness slumbers between the
harp strings, waking at the first touch of the
tips of the fingers 1t can weep. 1t can
plead. 1t can soothe. 1t can pray. The
flute is more mellow, the trumpet is more
startling, the organ is more majestic, the
cymbais are more festive, the drum Is more
resounding. but the harp has a richness of its
own and will continue its mission through
all time and then take part In celestial SYM
phonies, for st. John says he heard in heaven
the harps of God.
But the iayelin OF my text is Just as DID,
1t is about five and half feet long, with
wooden handle and steel point, keen and
sharp. But it belongs to the great family Of
death dealers and is brother to sword and
spear and bayonet, and first cousin to all the
implements that wound and STAY. 1t has cut
its way through the ages. 1t was old when
Saul in the scene Of my text, tried to har-
poon David. 1t has gashed the earth with
grave trenches. Its keen tip Is Redeemed
with the blood of American wars, English
wars, German wars Russian wars, French
wars, Crusader wars and wars of all ages.
The structure of the javelin shows what
II was made for. The plowshare Is sharp,
but aimed to cut the earth in preparation for
barvests. The lightning rod Is sharp, but
aimed to disarm the lightnings and secure
safety. The ak Is sharp, but aimed to fell
forests and clear the way for human habi-
tation. The knife is sharp, but aimed to cut
the bread for sustenance. But the iavelin is
sharp only to open human arteries and extin-
guish human eyesight and take human life
and fill the earth with the cries Of orphanage
and widowhood and childlessness.
Oh am an Glad that INV tayt hrip IN arm
SO close together that We can see the contrast
between the harp and the javelin. The one
to soothe, the other to hurt the one to save,
the other TO destroy the one divine, the other
diabolic the one to play, the other to hurl,
the one in Davids skillful hand, the other In
Sauls wrathful clutch. May God speed the
harp, may God grind into dullness the sharp
edge of the javeln.
Now what does all this make you think OFF
II suggests 10 me music as medicine for
physical and mental disorders. David took
hold OF the musical instrument which he best
knew how to play and evoked from it sounds
which were for King Saul's diversion and
medicanent. But. you say, the treatment in
this case was failure. Why was it failure7
Saul refused to take the medicine. A whols
apothecary shop of curative drugs will do
nothing toward healing your illnesses If you
refuse to take the medicine. 1t was not the
fault of David's prescription, bu. the fault Of
Sauls obstinacy
David, one OF the wisest and best Of all
ages, stands before us In the text administer
ing music for nervous disorder and cerebral
disturbance, and David was right. Music is
the mightiest force in all therapeutics. Its
results may not be seen as suddenly as other
forms of cure, but it Is just as wonderful.
You will never know how much suffering ana
sorrow music has assuaged and healed. A
soldier in the United States army said that
on the days the regimental band played near
the hospitals all the sick and wounded re-
Sived, and men who were 50 lame they could
not walk before got up and went out and sat
In the sunshine, and those SO displrited that
they never expected to get home began to
pack their baggage and ask about timetables
on steamboat and rail train.
Theodosius, the emperor, wrathful at the
behavior Of the people OF Antioch, who, on
some sudden provocation tore down the
statues OF emperor and empress, resolved
severely to punish them, but the bishop,
knowing that the emperor had group OF
boys to sing to him while eating at the table
taught the boys plaintive song in which the
people lamenteI their bad behavior, and the
king under the pathos of the music cried out
'The city Of Antioch is forgiven" The rage
of Achilles was assuaged by Q harp. Ascle
piades sTayed rebellious multitudes by O
harp.
After the battle OF Yorktown, when {
musician was to suffer amputatfon. and be
fore the days OF anmsthetics, the wounded
artist called for a musical instrument and
lost not a note during the forty minutes oil
amputation. Filippo Palma, the great must
played so enchantingly before him that the
creditor forgaye the debt and gave the debtos
ten g,i,neas more to appease other creditors.
An eminent physician OF olden time con-
tended (of course carrying our theory too
far that all ailments of the world could be
cured by music. The medical journals never
report their recoyeries by this mode. But In
what twilight hour has many saint Of God
solaced heartache with hymn hummed or
sung or playedi Jerome OF Prague sang
while burning at the stake Over what keys
OF piano or organ consolation has walked.
Yea, in church one hymn has rolled peaee
owl r--.5-11 c. me worrieu, perpisxei
and az )nized
While there are hymns and tunes ready fol
the jubilant, there is a rich hymnology fol-
the suffering-"Naomi' and 'Eventide" and
Autumn Leaves" and "Ceme We iisconso
late" and whole portfolios and librettos o
triumphs of surgery and all the new modes
OF successful treatment of physical and men
tai disorders are discussed In medical con
ventions and spread abroad In medical books
and it is high time that some Of the million!
OF souB that have been nedicated by music,
vocal and instrumental, let the world know,
what power there is in sweet sound, whether
rolling from lip or leaping from frightened
chord or ascending from ivory key.
Music is a universal language. At the
foot ~ the Tower OF Babel language was
split into fragments never to be again pu
together, but one thing was not hurt, an;
that is music, and it is the same all the work
over. Last summer in Russia at q watering