The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-04-27

the Lord.-Eph. v: 10. 10.
Icannot but wonder that church
music should ever have been regarded
with jealousy or suspicion, for indeed
it is not thing of today or yester-
day. Organs are mentioned by st.
Augustine even in the fifth century.
In England we find mention of or
gans in monastic churches as early as
the funeral of King Edgar; and we
know how st, Augustine of Canter-
bury and his missionaries advanced
in procession to King Ethelbert, sing
ing hymns, and how the rude Saxons
admired the sweet voice of the young
acolyte, Honorius. And since vocal
and instrumental music is thus an
Gent and precious in the service OF
God, may we not say, even with Mil
ton-st,ict and earnest Puritan as he
was
Let the pealing organ blow
To the full-voiced choir below,
In service high and anthems clear;
As may that sweetness through my ear
Dissolve me into ecstaces
And bring all heaven before my eyes,
First let me say of sacred music in
general, that from beginning to end
the whole Bible rings with it. In
the fourth chapter of Genesis you
have the first mention of instruments,
the harp and organ of Jubal, and af-
ter that page after page of Scripture
thrills with song. In the Old Tesla
ment there are Miriam and Jephthah's
daughter, and the virgin choirs of
Israel with their cymbals and dances.
There are the silver trumpets of the
new moons and Sabbaths. There
are the Levites in their white robes
on the Temple steps, one choir sing
ing, ooh, give thanks unto the Lord"
the other replying in thunderous an
tiphon, "'For his mercy endureth for
ever" There are the companies of
the prophets with harps and tabrets.
There are the children of the ten
tribes marching to their festivals at
Jerusalem in rivers of song. Nor is
the NewTestament less full of melody.
Angels sang from Heaven over the
cradle of the infant Christ. Our
Lord himself and his Apostles sing
a psalm before their last walk to-
gether to Gethsemane. In the
Epistles of St. Paul we find more
than one fragment of early Christian
hymns. Paul and Silas, their backs
bleeding with Roman rods, turned
their dungeon into minister. The
Apocalypse, as Milton says, "shuts up
the stately acts of its awful tragedy
with the sevenfold chorus of hallelu-
jahs and harping symphonies" as
Cherubim and Seraphim adore before
the White Throne. And, as it is
with this one great Book of God, the
Bible, so it is with that other great
book of his, the book of Nature.
There is
Sound of Perpetual Music,
under the blue dome of his temple
not made with hands, music now
awful as the roaring of the storms
amid the mountain pines, now "soft
as summer evenings latest sigh that
shuts the rose" The sea makes per-
petual music in silver ripples or
swelling tempests, and there are birds.
and falling waters, and angelic, soft,
trembling voices, and gentle, warb-
ling winds. All Gods creation seems
to initiate the song of those sons of
God and the morning stars, who sang
together and shouted with JOY when
a new created world arose at Gods
command. st. Paul, in my text, is
contrasting the false and Satanic ex-
element of intoxicated revelry with
the fervor and inspiration of sacred
song. He bids us not to be drunk
with wine, wherein is excess, but to
be filled with the Spirit, singing to
one another in psalms, and hymns,
and spiritual songs" May we not
fairly take those three words for de-
scription of exactly such services
as delight Christian congregations
day by day in such a church as
this3 May we not, for instance, use
the phrase spiritual songs" as fifty
describing those refined and elevated
anthems which are the special glory
of sacred music7 May we not thank
God for our great English musicians
Tails, with his chants 80 noble and
devout, and Blow, and Croft, and Att
wood, and Wesley, and Goss, and
Sterndale Bennett, and Henry Pur-
cell, "gone," as his epitaph in West
minister Abbey says, "to that place
where only his harmony can be ex-
ceeded"l May we not thank God
also for the great German musicians
Bach, with the pure, grand music