The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1893-06-30
THE SONGS OF BIRDS.
DR.. TALMAGE ON NATURES MINIS
TRY IN SONG.

| DhOohLfN, Juuo &O.-IScN. LIZ. III
mage this morning chose for the subjec
Of his sermon 1.-THE Song Of Birds.
This, like many of his sermons, Is SUITED
to the season of the year in which it i
preached. 1t is we'll fitted to be read un
der the trees and has in it the health O
outdoor life. Text, Psalms, civ, 12, "By
them shall the fowls of the heaven hav,
their habitation, which sing among tn,
branches"
There is an important and improving
subject to which most people have givel
no thought and concerning which thi
is the first pulpit discussion-namely
"The Song of Birds" If all that has
been written concerning music by hu
man voice or about music sounded or
instrument by finger or breath We're put
together, volume hy the side of volume
it would fill a hundred alcoves of tn,
national libraries.
But about the song of birds there is as
much silence as though thousand years
ago the last lark had with his wing
swept the door latch of heaven and as
though never a whippoorwill had sung
its lullaby to slumbering forest al
! nightfall. We give passing smile tc
the call of bobolink or the chirp of q
canary, but about the origin, about the
fiber, about the meaning, about the
mirth, about the pathos, about the in
spiration, about the religion in the song
Of birds the most of us are either igno-
rant or Indifferent. A caveat this morn
ing file in the high court of heaven
against that almost universal irreligion.
First, remark that which will sur
prise many, that the song of birds is a
regulated and systematic song, capable
of being written out in note and staff
and bar and clef as much as anything
that Wagner or Schumann or Handel
ever put on paper. AS we pass the
grove where the flocks are holding matin
or vesper service we are apt to think
that the sounds are extemporized, the
rising or falling tone is mere accident.
it is flung up and down by haphazard,
the bird did not know what it was
doing, it did not care whether it was a
long meter psalm or madrigal, What
a mistake!
The musician never put on the music
rack before him Memberships elijah
or Beethoven's Concerto in G or
Spohr's B fat symphony with more def
mite idea as to what he was doing than
every bird that can sing at all confines
himself to accurate and predetermined
rendering, The oratorios, the chants,
the carols, the overtures, the interludes,
the ballads, the canticles that this morn
ing were heard or will this evening be
heard in the forest have rolled down
through the ages without variation.
Even the chipmunks song was ordained
clear back in the eternities. AT the gates
syllables "Kukr "Kukr' "Kukw Just
as this morning in Long Island or
hhard it sang "Kuki" ''Kukr "Kukr
The thrush at the creation uttered
sounds like the word "Teacherr "Teach-
err" '.Teacher!' as now it utters sounds
like ''Teacher.' "Teacher!' "Teacher!'
In the summer of the year the yell
lowhammer trilled that which sounded
like "Ifr' "If!' ''Ifv as in this summer
it trills "If!' "Ifr' "Ifr' The Maryland
yellowthroat inherits and bequeaths the
tune sounding like the words "Pity me,
pity me, pity me!'' The white sparrow's
"Tseep, tseep' woke our great GRANDPA
theirs as it viii awaken our great grand
children. The Tee ka- tee a-tee-ka" of
the birds in the first century was the
same as the Tee a-tee-ka-te ka" of the
nineteenth century.
NATURES UNCHANGING SONG.
Tie gollfnch has for G,000 years been
singing "De-ree-dee-ee-ree." But these
sounds. which we put in harsh words,
they put in cadences, rhythmic, soulful
and enrapturing. Now if there is this
order and systematization and rhythm
all through Gods creation does it not
imply that we should have the same
characteristics in the music we make or
try to maker Is it not wiclledness that
SO many parents give no opportunity for
the culture of their children in the art
of sweet sound? If God stoops to edu-
cate every bluebird, oriole and grosbeak
h song, how can parents be so indiffer-
INT about the musical development of
the immortals in their household?
While God will accept our attempts to
sing, though it be only hum or drone
if we can do no better, what shame that
in this last decade of the nineteenth CEN
fury. when so many orchestral batons
are waving and SO many academies of
music are in full concert, and so many
skilled men and women are waiting to
offer instruction there are so many peo-
pie who cannot sing with any confidence
in the house of God because they have
had no culture in this sacred art, or
while they are able to sing fantasia at
piano amid the futtering fans of social
admirers, nevertheless feel utterly help
less when in church the surges of an
"Ariel" or an antioch" roll over them.
The old fashioned country singing school,
now much derided and caricatured land
indeed sometimes it was diverted from
the PEAL design into the culture of the
soft emotions rather than the voice.,
nevertheless did admirable work, and in
our churches we need singing schools to
prepare our Sabbath audiences for
prompt and spontaneous and multipo-
tent psalmody. This world needs to be
stormed with halleluiahs.
We want hemisphere campaign of
hosannas. From hearing blind beggar
sing Martin Luther went home at 40
years of age to write his first hymn. In
the autumn l hope to have congrega-
tional singing school here during the
week which shall prepare the people for
the songs of the holy Sabbath. If the
church of God universal is going to take
this world for righteousness, there must
be added hundredfold of more har-
mony as we'll as hundredfold of more
volume to sacred music.
Further, / notice in the song Of birds
that it is divinely taught song. The
rarest prima donna of all the earth could
not teach the robin one musical note. A
kingisher flying over the roof of tenn
| pie aquake with harmonies would not
catch up one melody. From the time
that the first birds throat was fashioned
on the banks of the Gihon and Hiddekel