The Penn's Grove record., 1893-05-19

NOcai anu lnSITuHleuthl, lol tue WOEiu khoN
what power there is in sweet sound, whether
rolling from lip or leaping from frightened
chord or ascending from ivory key.
Music Is a universal language. At the
foot Of the Tower OF Babel language was
split into fragments never to be again put
together, but one thing was not hurt, AMI
that is music, and it is the same all the world
over. Last summer in Russia at a watering
place we were greeted as we entered a great
auditorium, which was filed with thousands
of Russians, whose language l could not
understand any more than they could under
stand mine.
But after the grand band had, out of COM
pliment to us, played our two great Ameri-
can airs, 1 stepped on the platform and said
to the bandmaster Russian air! Russian
air ~ and then he tapped with his baton on
the music rack, and with a splendor and
majesty Of power hat 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 q universal language, and 80
good for universal cure.
/ should not wonder il In the day OF judg-
ment 1t should be found out that more souls
have been saved by music than by preaching.
should not wonder If out of the one hun
dred and forty and four thousand ransomed
souls that John foresaw before the throne OF
God at least 1876, 900 had been saved by sweet
song. Why does not the church on earth
bkhOt hD INV 'N@NN . thS e~N ho-INdh
center Of the universe, the place of doxolo-
gies and trumpets and harps, and in prepara-
ton 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 Highlanders back
to their places, and sacred music has re-
turned many a faltering host OF God into the
Christian conflict with as much determine
and dash as 1ennyson's "Six Hundred. !"
Who can tell what has been accomplished by
Charles Wesley's 1000 hymns, or by the con
gregational singing OF his time, which could
be heard two miles of2 When my dear
friend Dio Lewis (gone to rest all too soon)
conducted a campaign against drunkenness
at the West, and marshaled thousands OF the
coolest women Of the land in that magni6-
cent campaign, and whole neighborhoods and
villages and cities shut up their grog shops,
do you know the chief Weapon u5ed2 1t was
the song.
Nearer, my God. TO Thee,
Nearer TO Tnee.
rney sang 1t at the door Of hundreds OF
liquor saloons which had been open for
years, and either at the first charge OF the
campaign or the second the saloon shut up.
At the first verse OF Nearer, My God, to
rhee'' the liquor dealers laughed, at the
second verse tney looked solemn, at the third
verse they began to cry, and at the fourth
/ verse they got Town on their knees. You
say they opened their saloons again. Yes,
some OF them did. But it is a great thing to
nave hell shut up If only for a week. Give
full swing to a good gospel hymn, and it
would take the whole world Tor God!
But when in my text I see Saul declining
this medicine of rhythm mi cadence and ac-
tually hurting a javelin at the heart OF David,
the harpist, l bethink myself of the fact that
sin would like to kill sacred music. We are
not told what tune David was playing on the
harp that day, but from the character of the
mau-we know it was not u crazy madrigal, or
u a aaAlnn - - m rgaA .aE RaN n1ar
gestIve OF the melodrama, but elevated music,
God given music, inspired music, religious
music, a whole heaven of it encamped under
a harpstring. No wonder that wicked Saul
hated it and could not abide the sound and
with all his might hurled an instrument of
death at it.
l know there are styles OF music that sin
admires, and you hear it as you pass the
casino or the dance hall, n the devil has
stolen most of the fiddles, though l am glad
the Ole Bulls have snatched up the charmed
strings from their Dissertation, built is a fact
that sin has a javelin for sacred sounds. In
many churches the javelin OF criticism has
killed the music, javelin flung from organ loft
or from adjoining pew Of the supersenSitive.
5aul's javeiin aimed at David's harp. Thou
sands of people 50 afraid they may not sing
scientifically, they will not sing at all, or sing
with such low tone that no one hears them.
In many Il church the ~javelin of criticism
mas crippled the harp of worship. Ii satan
could silence all the Suniay-schooi songs
and the hymns of Christian worship, ne
would gain his greatest achievement. When
the millennial song shall rise-and it is be-
ing made ready-there will be such a roll of
voices, such a concentrated power Of stringed
and wind instruments, such majesty, such
unanimity, such continental and hemisphere
and planetary reclamation, that it will pc i'm
possible to know where earth stops and
heaven begins. Roll on, roll in, roll vi, thou
m%illennial harmony
See also in my subject a rejected oppor-
unity Of revenge. Why did not David pick
up Saulis javelin and hurl it back again?
David had a skillful arm. He demonstrated
on another occasion he could WELD q sling,
and he could have easily picked up that
~javelin, aimed 1t at Saul, the would-be
assassin, and left the foaming and demented
monster as Hfeless under the javelin as he
had left Goliath under q sling. Oh, David,
now is your chance. No, no. Men and
women with power OF tongue or pen or hand
to reply to an imbittered antagonist, better
initiate David and let the javelin lie at your
feet and keep the harp in your hand. Do
not strike back. Do not play the game Of
tit for tat.
Gibbon, In his history, tells Of Bajazet, tn.
great Moslem General who was brought a
captive to the tent Of Timur. He had at
tempted the massacre of Timur and his men.
Timur said to him HAD you vanquished US
| am not ignorant Of the late which you re-
served for myself and m troops, but l dis
dain to retaliate. Your life and honor are
secure, and l shall express my gratitude to
God by my clemency to man." Beautiful.
Revenge on Christians tongue or pen or
Iand is inapt and more damage to the one
who employs it than the one against whom
it is employed. What A javelin hurled at
you and fallen at your feet, and you not hurl
1t back again. Yes. l have tried the plan.
/ learned 1t from my father and have prac-
| TOAD n a N INV ffa and IL vA.i- ..,all -.
the help of God and ~javelins not picked up /
nave conquered all my foes and preache |
funeral sermons in honor OF most of them.
The best thing you can do with a javelin
hurled at you is 10 let it lie where 1t dropped
or hang it up in your museum as a curiosity.
The deepest wound made by q javalin is not
by the sharp edge, Tut at the dulI end OF the
handle to him who Yields It. / leave it to
you to say which got the oest of that fight 10
the palace-Saul or David.
See also in my subject that the fact that a
man sometimes lodges is not against his
courage. My text says that when Saul as
sailed him, David avoided ont OF his pres
ence twiee"-that is, when the javelin was
! flung, he stepped out of its direction or bent
this way or that-in other words, he lodged.
But all those who have read the life of David
know that he was not lacking in prowess.
David had faults, but cowardice was not one
Of them.
When David, who was, I guess, about four
and a half feet high, went out to meet the
giant, who was, 1guess, about 10 feet high,
1t was a big undertaking, and the inequali-
ties of the struggle were so great that it
struck the giants idea of the ludicrous, and
he suggested to the little fellow that he would
make a fine inner for a buzzard or a jackal
-"COme to me, and l will give thy flesh unto
the fowls OF the air and to the beasts OF the
teld."
When David went out to meet that giant
and nonntara1 him ha d.poanakkaA oa -
David lodged 1t. or the chief work Of his life
would never have been done. What a lesson
Ibis is to those who go into useless danger
and expose their lives or their regulations or
their usefulness unnecessarily. When duty
demands, go ahead, though all earth and he'll
oppose. Dodge rot one inch from the right
position. But when nothing Is involved step
back or step aside.