The Globe-republican., 1893-10-20
THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
Dr.. Talmage Discourses on What
It Should Be.
The Inspiration and the Help of the Poo
ple-Help in the Music, In the
Sermon and In the
Prayers.

The subject of late sermon preached
at Brooklyn by Rev. T. Dewitt Tai.
mage was Helpful Churches, the text
being from Psalms XXX. 2: ''Send thee
help from the sanctuary" DR.. Tai
mage said:
If you should ask fifty men wha: the
church is, they would give you fifty
different answers. One man would say:
1T is a convention of hypocrites- An
other: 1T is an assembly of people
who feel themselves great deal better
than Others" Another: 1T is place
for gossip. where wolverine dispositions
devour each other" Another: 1T is a
place for the cultivation of superstition
and can't" Another: 1T is an arsenal
where theologians go to get pixies and
muskets and shot" Another: 1T is an
art gallery, where men 60 to admire
grand arches, and exquisite fresco, and
musical MARBLE, and the Dantesque in
gloomy imagery" Another man would
say: 1T is the best place on earth ex-
cept my own home If forget thee,
Oh, Jerusalem. let my right hand for
get 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 SER
vice ought to yield strength for the
MOL and struggle of everyday 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 a magnet, visibly
and nightly affecting all the homes of
the worshipers. Every man gets rough
ly jostled, gets abused. gets cut, gets in
suited, gets sighted. gets eXasperated.
By the time the Sabbath comes. he has
an accumulation of six days annoy
ance, and that is a starving church
service which has not strength enough
to take that accumulated annoyance
and hurl it into perdition. The bust
ness man sits down in church head
achey from the weeks engagements
Perhaps he wishes he had tarried at
home on the lounge with the newspa-
pers and the slippers. That man wants
to be cooled off, and graciously di-
verted. The first wave of the relig
ious service ought to dash clear over
the hurricane decks, and leave him
dripping with holy and glad and heav-
emily emotion. send thee help from
the sanctuary"
In the first place. sanctuary help
ought to come from the music. A
woman dying in England persisted in
singing to the last moment. The at
PENDANTS tried to persuade her to stop,
saying it would exhaust her and make
her disease worse. She answered: Il
must sing; L am only practicing for the
heavenly choir" Music on earth Is
rehearsal for music in Heaven If You
and l are going to take part in that
great orchestra it is high time that we
were stringing and drumming our
harps. They tell US that Thalberg and
Gottschalk never would go into a con-
cert until they had first in private re-
hearsed. although they We're such mas
tiers of the instrument And can it be
that we expect to take part in the
great oratorio of Heaven if we do not
rehearse here? But | am not speaking
of the next world. Sabbath song ought
to set all the week to music. We want
not mere harmony. not more artistic
expression, but more volume in our
church music
Now, l am no worshiper of noise,
but l 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
it to where it ought to be? All the
annoyances of life might ne drowned
out of that sacred song. Do You tell
me 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 trickle
through the dam. l say take away
the dam and let the pillows roar on
their way to the oceanic heart of God
Whether it is fashiona Die to sing loudly
or not, let us sing with all possible en-
phasis.
We hear a great deal of the art of
singing, of music as an entertainment,
of music as a recreation. 1t is high
time we heard something of music as
help, practical help. In order to do
this we must only have a few hymns.
New tunes and new hymns every Sum
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 years |
will not wear out the hymns of Will |
liam Cowper and Charles Wesley and |
Isaac Watts Suppose, now. each |
person in this audience has brought all |
the annoyances of the last sos days. |
Fill this room to the ceiling with sa-
cred song and you would drown out all |
those annoyances of the sos DAYS, and |
YOU would drown them ont forever