The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1893-05-19

and wounded revived, ana men VINO were
80 lame they could not walk before got
up and went out and sat In the sunshine,
and those so dispirited 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 en-
press, 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 la
mented their bad behavior, and the king
under the pathos Of the music cried out,
'The city of-Antioch is forgi ven." Tho
rage of Achilles was assuaged by harp.
Asclepiades swayed rebellious multi
tudes by harp.
THE POWER OF MUSIC.
| After the battle of Yorktown, when Q
musician was to suffer amputation, and
before the days Of an@sthetics, the
wounded artist called for musical in
strument and lost not note during the
40 minutes of amputation. Filippo Pal
ma, the great musician, confronted by
an angry creditor, played SO enchanting
ly before him that the creditor forgave
the debt and gave the debtor 10 guineas
more to appease other creditors.
An eminent physician of olden time
commended (of course carrying our theory
too far) that all ailments Of the world
could be cured by music. The medical
! journals never report their recoveries by
this mode. But in what twilight hour has
many saint of God solaced heartache
with hymn hummed or sung or playedl
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 peace over a
thousand of the worried, perplexed and
agonized.
While there are hymns and tunes ready
for the jubilant, there is rich hymnol-
ogy for the suffering-"Naomi" and
"Eventide" and Autumn Leaves" and
Come, We disconsolate, and whole port
folios and librettos of tears set to music.
All the wonderful triumphs Of surgery
and all the new modes of successful
treatment Of physical and mental dis
orders are discussed in medical conven-
tons and spread abroad in medical books,
and it is high time that some Of the mil
lions of souls that have been medicated
by music, vocal and instrumental, let the
world know what power there isin sweet
sound, whether rolling from lip or leap
ing from frightened chord or ascending
from ivory key.
Music is universal language. At the
foot of the Tower of Babellanguage was
split into fragments never to be again
put together, but one thing was not hurt,
and that is music, and it is the same all
the world over. Last summer in Russia
at watering place we were greeted as
we entered great auditorium, which
was filed with thousands Of Russians,
whose language could not understand
any more than they could understand
mine.
But after the grand band had, out of
compliment to us, played our two great
American airs, stepped on the platform
and said to the bandmaster, Russian
air! Russian airr' and then he tapped
with his baton ON the music rack, and
with splendor and majesty Of power
that almost made us quail the full band
poured forth their national anthem.
They understood our American music,
and we understood their Russian music.
1t is universal language and 80 good
for universal cure.
should not wonder il in the day Of
Judgment it should be found out that
more souls have been saved by music
than by preaching. Ishould not wonder
If out of the one hundred and forty and
four thousand ransomed souls that John
foresaw before the throne of God at
least 10000 had been saved by sweet
song. Why does not the church on
earth take the hint? Heaven is the great
musical center of the universe, the place
of doxologies and trumpets and harps,
} and in preparation for that place we
ought to make more Of music on earth.
! The band of music at Waterloo played
the retreat Of the Forty-second High
landers back to their places, and sacred
music has returned many faltering
host of God into the Christian conflict
! with as much determination and dash as
} Tennyson's "Six Hundred" Who can
tell what has been accomplished by
Charles Wesley's 1000 hymns, or by the
congregational singing of his time, which
could be heard two miles off? When my
dear friend Dio Lewis (gone to rest all
too soon) conducted campaign against
drunkenness at the west, and marshaled
thousands of the noblest women Of the
land in that magnificent campaign, and
whole neighborhoods and villages and
cities shut up their grog shops, do yor
know the chief weapon used? It was thu
l song:
, Nearer, my God, to thee,
Nearer to thee.
, They sang 1t at the door Of hundreds O.
! liquor saloons which had been open fol
years, and either at the first charge o
! the campaign or the second the saloo,
). shut up. At the first verse Of Nearer
j, My God, to Thee" the liquor dealer
laughed, at the second verse they looke'
solemn, at the third verse they began t.
3 cry, and at the fourth verse they go
Q down on their knees. You say the.
q opened their saloons again. Yes, som
2 of them did. But it is great thing t
Q have hell shut up if only for week
s Give full swing to good gospel hymn
d and it would take the whole world 70
/. God!
a THE REBELLIOUS NATURE.
n But when in my text see Saul declir
a ing this medicine of rhythm and cadenc
9 and actually hurting javelin at th
"a heart of David, the harpist, l bethin
d myself of the fact that sin would like
kill sacred music. We are not told wha
- tune David was playing on the harp tha
" day, but from the character Of the ma
~ we know it was not crazy madrigal, c
% a senseless ditty, or sweep of string
?: suggestive of the melodrama, but ell
10 waited music, God given music, inspire
n music, religious music, whole heave
g Of it encamped under harpstring. N
10 wonder that wicked Saul hated it an
: could not abide the sound and with q