The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1893-10-27
THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
DR.. Talmage Discourses on What
It Should BE.
The Inspiration and the Help OF me Peo-
pls-HeIp in the Music. I'm the
Sermon and in the
Prayers.

The subject of late sermon preached
at Brooklyn by Rev. 7. Dewitt Tai
mage was Helpful Churches, the text
being from Psalms XXX. 2: "Send thee
help from the sanctuary" DIR. Tai
mage said:
If you should ask fifty men what the
church is, they would give you fifty
| different answers. One man would say:
at is a convention of hypocrites" An
other: 1T is an assembly of people
who feel themselves great deal better
than Others" Another: 1T is place
for gossip. where wolverine dispositions
devour each other" Another: ut is
place for the cultivation of superstition
and can't" Another: 1T is an arsenal
where theologians go to get pixies and
muskets and shot" Another: 1T is an
art gallery, where men go to admire
grand arches, and exquisite fresco, and
musical MARBLE, and the Dantesque in
gloomy imagery" Another man would
say: ''It is the best place on earth eX-
cept my own home. If l forget thee,
Oh, Jerusalem! let my right hand for
get her cunning"
NOW, my lrItuuS, WhdtcNCI bhC
church is, my text tells you what it
! ought to be; great, practical, homely,
omnipotent help. Send thee help
from the sanctuary" The pew ought
to Weld restfulness to the body. The
color of the upholstery ought to yield
pleasure to the eye. The entire SER
vice ought to yield strength for the
MOL and struggle of everyday life.
| The Sabbath ought to be harnessed to
all the six days of the week, drawing
them in the right direction. The
church ought to be a magnet, visibly
and nightly affecting all the homes of
the worshipers. Every man gets rough
ly jostled, gets abused. gets cut, gets in
suited, gets sighted, gets eXasperated.
| By the time the Sabbath comes, he has
an accumulation of six days annoy
ance, and that is starving church
service which has not strength enough
to take that accumulated annoyance
and hurl it into perdition. The bust
ness man sits down in church head
achey from the weeks engagements.
Perhaps he wishes he had tarried at
home on the lounge with the newspa-
pers and the slippers. That man wants
to be cooled off, and graciously di-
verted. The first wave of the relig-
ious service ought to dash clear over
the hurricane decks, and leave him
dripping with holy and glad and heav-
emily emotion "Send thee help from
the sanctuary.
In the first place, sanctuary help
ought to come from the music. A
woman dying in England persisted in
singing to the last moment. The at
tendants tried to persuade her to stop,
saying it would exhaust her and make
| her disease worse. She answered.: Il
must sing; am only practicing for the
heavenly choir" Music on earth is a
rehearsal for music in Heaven. If you
and | are going to take part in that
great orchestra it is high time that we
were stringing and drumming our
harps. They tell us that Thalberg and
Gottschall1 never would go into a con-
cert until they had first in private re-
hearsed, although they were such mas
| tiers of the instrument And can it be
that we expect to take part in the
great oratorio of Heaven if we do not
rehearse here? But | am not speaking
of the next world. Sabbath song ought
| to set all the week to music. We want
not more harmony, not more artistic
expression, but more volume in our
church music.
Now, | am no worshiper of noise,
but | believe that if our American
churches would, with full heartiness of
soul and full emphasis of voice, sing
the songs of Zion this part of sacred
worship would have tenfold more
power than it has now. Why not take
this part of the sacred service and lift
it to where it ought to be? All the
annoyances of life might be drowned
out of that sacred song. Do you tell
me it is not fashionable to sing very
loudly? Then, l say, away with the
/ fashion. We dam back the great
| Mississippi of congregational singing.
! and let few drops of melody trickle
/ through the dam. l say take away
: the dam and let the pillows roar on
! their way to the oceanic heart of God.
Whether it is fashionable to sing loudly
or not, let us sing with all possible en-
| phasis.
We hear great deal of the art of
singing, of music as an entertainment,
| of music as a recreation. 1t is high
time we heard something of music as a
| help. a practical help. In order to do
/ this we must only have a few hymns
New tunes and new hymns every Sum
day make poor congregational singing
Fifty hymns are enough for fifty years.
/ The Episcopal church prays the same
| PRAYERS every Sabbath, and year after
: year and century after century. For
! that reason they have the hearty re-
! sponses Let us take hint from that
fact, and let us sing the same songs
! Sabbath after Sabbath. Only in that
way can we come to the full force of
his exercise. Twenty thousand years
will not wear out the hymns of Will
! liam Cowper and Charles Wesley and
Isaac Watts. Suppose, now, each
. person in this audience has brought all
/ the annoyances of the last 800 days.
! Fill this room to the ceiling with sa-
cred song and you would drown out all
those annoyances of the sos days, and
you would drown them out forever.
( Organ and cornet are only to marshal
! the voice. Let the voice fall into line
/ and in companies and in brigades, by
storm take the obduracy and sin of the
world. If you cannot sing for yourself,
sing for others. By trying to give
others good cheer you will bring good
cheer to your own heart. When Lon
donderrv, Ireland, was besieged many
years ago, the people inside the
city were furnishing, and a vessel
came up with provisions, but the
vessel ran on the river bank and