The Bossier banner., 1893-11-16
HELPFUL CHURCHES.
Rev. T. Dewitt Talks on the
Christianity Of To-Day.
What the Church Needs to BE to Fulfill
Its Mission-A Great, Practical,
HomeIy, Omnipotent Help
to Mankind.


Dewitt Talmage in the Brooklyn tab
ernacle, from the text:
Send the help from the sanctuary.-Psalms
Xxx, 2.
If you should ask fifty men what the
church is, they would give you fifty
different answers. One man would
say: 'It is convention of hypocrites."
Another: at is an assembly of people
who feel themselves great deal bet
ter than Others" Another: at is
place for gossip, where wolverine dis
positions devour each other" Another:
1T is a place for the cultivation Of su-
perstition and can't" Another: ut is
an arsenal where theologians go to get
pixies and muskets and shot" Another:
at is an art gallery, where men go to
admire grand arches, and exquisite
fresco, and musical warble, and the
Dantesque in gloomy imagery" An
other man would say: at is the best
place on earth except my own home.
If forget thee, Oh, Jerusalem! let my
right hand forget her cunning"
Now, my friends, whatever the
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 yield restfulness to the body. The
color of the upholstery ought to yield
pleasure to the eye. The entire service
ought to yield strength for the moil
and struggle of4seVeryday 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 magnet, visibly
and nightly affecting all the homes
roughly jostled, gets abused, gets cut,
gets insuited, gets sighted, gets exas-
perated. BY the time the Sabbath
comes, he has an accumulation of six
days annoyance and that is starveling
church service which has not strength
enough to take that accumulated an
noyance and hurl it into perdition.
The business man sits down in church
headachy from the weeks engage
merlts. Perhaps he wishes he had tar
ried at home ON the lounge with the
newspapers and the slippers. That
man wants to be cooled off, and gra
cious1y diverted. The first wave of
the religious service ought to dash clear
over the hurricane decks and leave him
dripping with holy and glad and
heavenly emotion. ''Send thee help
from the sanctuary"
In the first place, sanctuary help
ought to come from the music. A
woman dying in Europe persisted
in singing to the last moment. The
attendants tried to persuade her
to stop, saying it would exhaust her
and make her disease worse. She an
swered: II must sing; Lam. only prac-
ticing for the Heavenly choir" Mu-
sic on earth is a rehearsal for music
in Heaven. If.you and I are. going to
take part in that great orchestra it Is
high time that we were stringing and
thrumning our. harps. They tell us
that Thalberk and Gottschalk never
would go into concert until they had
first in private rehearsed, although
they were such masters of the instru-
ment. And can it be that we expect
to take part in the great oratorio of
Heaven if we do not rehearse here?
But l am not speaking of the next
world. Sabbath song ought to be set
all the week to music. We want not
more harmony, not more artistic ex-
preston, but more volume in our
church music.
Now, am no worshiper of noise but
I 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 1T to where
1t ought to be? All the annoyances ol
life might be drowned out of that
sacred song. Do you tell me that it is
not fashionable to sing very loudly?
Then, say, away with the fashion
We dam back the great Mississippi OF
congregational singing, and let few
drops of melody triclxle through the
dam. l say take away the dam and
let the pillows roar on their way tc
the oceanic heart of God. Whether it
is fashionable to sing loudly or not, lei
us sing with all possible emphasis.
We hear great deal of the art ot
singing, of music as an ntertainm ent,
of music as recreation. 1t is high
time we heard something of music as a
help, practical help. In order to dc
this we must only have few hymns.
New tunes and new hymns every Sun.
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
this exercise. Twenty thousand wears
will not wear out the hymns of Will.
liam Cowper, and Charles Wesley, and
Isaac Watts. Suppose, now, each per.
son in this audience has brought all
the annoyances of the last three hun.
dred and sixty-five days. Fill this
room to the ceiling with sacred
song and you would drown
out all those annoyances of the