The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1893-07-07

Get enchantmenhA God-fashioned, God
tuned, God-launched, God-lifted mu-
sicl And there IL kind Of music that
the Lord only can impart to you, my
nearer. There have been depraved, rep
rebate and blasphemous souls which
could sign till great auditoriums were
in raptures- There have been soloists
and bassos. and ,arytones and sopranos
whose brilliancy in concert halls has
not been more famous than their de-
baucheries. But Their is a king of
song, which, like the song of birds, is
Divinely fashioned. Songs of pardon
Songs of Divine comfort Songs of
worship. Songs in the night" like
those which David and Job mem
toned. Song full of faith and tender
ness and prayer, like those which the
Christian mother sings over the sick
cradle. Songs of n broken heart
being healed Songs of the dy-
ing flashed upon by opening por-
tails of amethyst. Songs like that
which Paul commended to the Colos-
slams, when he said: "Admonish one
another in psalms, and hymns, and
spiritual songs, singing, with grace in
your hearts, to the Lord" Songs like
Moses sang after the tragedy. of the
Red sea. Songs like Deborah and Ba-
rak sang at the overthrow of Sisera.
Songs like Isaiah heard the redeemed
sing as they came to Zion. Oh, God,
teach US that kind of song which Thou
canst teach, and help us to sing it on
earth and sing it i'll Heaven. 1t was
the highest result of sweet sound when
under the playing of Paganini one au-
ditor exclaimed reverently: ''Oh,
Godr' and another sobbed out: ''Oh
Christi"
Further, l remark in regard to the
song of birds, that it is trustful, and
without any fear of what may yet
come. VIII you tell me how 1t is posi-
BILE for that wren, that sparrow, that
chickadee, to sing SO sweetly when
they may at any time be bounced on by
hawk and torn wing from wing.
There are cruel beazs in thicket and
sky ready to Stay the song birds. Her
DDS on the wing. Modocs of the sky.
Assassins armed with iron claw. Muir
derers of song floating up and down
the heavens How can the birds sing
amid such perils? Beside that, how is
the bird sure to get its food? Millions
of birds have been starved. Yet it
sings in the dawn without any certainty
of breakfast or dinner or supper. Would
it not be better to gather it's food for the
day before vocalizing? Besides that
the hunters are abroad. Bang! goes a
gun in one direction. Bang goes a
gun in another direction. The song
will attract the shot and add to the
peril. Beside that, yonder is thun-
der-cloud and there may DO hurricane
and hail to be let loose and what then
will become of you, the poor warbler?
Besides that, winter will come. and it
may be smitten down before il gets to
the tropics. Have you never seen the
snow strewn with the birds belated in
their migration? The titmouse min
giles its voice with the snow storms as
Emerson describes the little thing he
found in tempestuous January:
Here was this atom in full breath
Hurting defiance at vast death;
This scrap of valor just for play
Fronts the north wind in waistcot gray.
For every bird, thousand perils and
disasters lowering and sweeping round
and round. Yet, there it sings, and it
is truthful song. The bird that has
it the hardest, sings the sweetest. The
lark from the shape of her claws may
not perch on tree. In the grass her
nest is exposed to every hoof that
passes One of the poorest shelters of
all the earth is the larlxs nest. If she
sing at all, you will expect her to sur
render the saddest of threnodies. No,
no. She sings exultingly an hour with
out pause and mounting three thou
sand feet without losing note. Would
God we all might learn the lesson.
Whatever perils, whatever bereave-
come, sing, sing with all your
heart and sing with all younr lungs.
If you wait until all the hawks of
trouble have folded their wings and
all the hunters of hate have unloaded
their guns and all the hurricanes of
disaster have spent their fury, you will
never sing at all. David, the pursued
of Absalom, and the betrayed of Ahith-
ophel, and the depleted of 'tscores that
ran in the night" presents US the best
songs of the Billie. John Milton, not
able to see his hand before his face,
sings for us the famous poem of all
literature, and some of the most cheer
full people / have ever met have been
Christian people under physical, or do
nestle, or puplic torment. The songs
of Charles Wesley, which we now calm
ly sing in church, were composed by
him between mobs.
Further, in the sky galleries, there
l.. IL
meadow lark is mournful, and the
goldfinch joyous, and the grosbeak
prolonged of note. But the libretto of
nature is voluminous. Are you sad;
you can hear from the bowers the echo
of your grief Are you glad; you can
hear an echo of your happiness
Are you thoughtful; you can hear
that which will plunge you into
deeper profound. Are you weary? you
may catch restful air. So the songs
of birds are administrative in all CIR
cumstances. And we would do well to
have hymnology for all changes of
condition. You may sing your woes
into peace and rouse your joys into
greater attitudes. Upon every condi-
ton of body and soul, let us try the
power of song. The multitudinous ut
terances of grove and orchard and gar
den and forest suggest most delightful
possibilities.
Further. notice, that the song of
birds is family song. Even those of
the feathered throngs which have no
song at all, make what utterances they
do in sounds of their own family of
birds The boot of the owl, the clat-
ter of the mappie. the crow of the