Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1893-1895, 1893-06-26

mony % well NJ bundredfold n NOR,
volume ~ sacred music.
Further, notice N tho song ~ bird,
that u IA a divineiy taught song. Tho
rarest priina donna of al NE earth could
not teaoh the robin one musical note. A
kinaasber flying over the roof Of tenn.
pie aquake with barmonies would not
catch up one melody. From the time
that tho first birds throat was fashioned
on the banks Of the Gihon and Hiddekel
until today on the Hudson or Rhine the
winged creature has learned nothing
from the human race In the way Of carol
or anthem. Tho feathered songsters
learned all their music direct from God.
He gave them the art in nest Of straw
or moss or sticks and taught them how
TO lift that song into the higher heavens
and sprinkle the earth with It's dulcet en-
chantments. God fashioned, God tuned,
God launched, God lifted music And
there is kind Of music that the Lord
only can impart TO you, my hearer.
There have been depraved. reprobate
and blasphemous souls which could sing
till great auditoriums were in raptures.
There have been soloists and bassos and
baritones and sopranos whose brilliancy
in concert halls has not been more fa-
nous than their debaucheries. But
there is kind Of song which, like the
song of birds. is divinely fashioned.
Songs of pardon. Songs of divine COM
fort. Songs of worship. "Songs in the
night" like those which David and Job
mentioned. Songs full of faith and ten
derness and prayer, like those which the
Christian mother sings over the sick era
die. Songs of broken heart being
healed. Songs of the dying flashed upon
by opening portals of amethyst.
Songs like that which Paul COM
mended to the Colossians 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 Barak
sang at the overthrow of Sisera, songs
like Isaiah heard the redeemed sing as
he came to Zion. Oh, God, teach us
that kind of song which thou only canst
teach and help us to sing it on earth
and sing it in heaven. 1t was the high
est result of sweet sound when under
the playing of Paganini one auditor ex-
claimed reverently, "Oh, Godp' and an
other 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.
ko11 LAr % Io 60
that wren, that sparrow, that chickadee,
to sing so sweetly when they may any
time be pounced on by hawk and torn
wing from wing2 There are cruel beaks
in thicket and in sky ready to slay the
song birds. Herods ON the wing. Mo-
docs of the sky. Assassins armed with
iron claw. Murderers of song floating
up and down the heavens. How can the
birds sing amid such perils? Besides that,
how is the bird sure to get its food? Mil
lions 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.
Bangi goes a gun in one direction. Bangl
goes gun in another direction. The
song will attract the shot and add to the
peril. Besides that. yonder is thun-
dercloud, and there may be hurricane
and hail to be let loose, and what then
will become of you, the poor warbler7
Besides that, winter will come, and it
may be smitten down before it gets to
he frA kha
snow strewn with the birds belated in
their migration? The titmouse mingles
its voice with the snowstorms as Emer-
son 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 waistcoat gray.
SONGS OF HOPE AND TRUST
For every bird thousand perils and
disasters lowering and sweeping round
and round. Yet there it sings, and it is
a trustful 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 larks nest If she sings at all, you
will expect her to render the saddest of
threnodies. No, no. She sings exultingly
an hour without pause and mounting
5000 feet without losing note. Would
God we all might learn the lesson.
Whatever pcrils, whatever bereavements,
whatever trials are yet to come, sing,
sing with all your heart and sing with
all your 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 Ahithophel and the
depleted of 'sores that ran in the night,
presents us the best songs of the Bible.
John Milton, not able to see his hand be-
fore his face, sings for US the most ia
nous poem of all literature, and some Of
the most cheerful people / have ever met
have been Christian people under phys
ical or domestic or public torment. The
songs of Charles Wesley, which we now
49,. mana nnv,oVAnaaA