St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-07-15
FURNISH A THEME FOR A SER
MON TO REV. ADDISON
MOORE.
DIVINEST OF ALL THE ARTS.
EAIBODYING AND STRENGTHEN
ING THE FOUR SISTER
ARTS.
Is Involved in the Easy. IndoIen,
Life, Says Rev. Robert HAM
mOnd Cotton.

At the Woodland Park Baptist church
Rev. Addison Moore preached yesterday
morning on the theme 1.-THE Ethics of
Music" Taking for his text Great
and marvellous are Thy works, oh
Lord God Almighty" Grew. XIV, 81, the
preacher said:
Each of the arts of architecture.
sculpture, painting, and poetry, are
strengthened by the other. and all in
turn lend support to the divinest art of
all, that of music, in which the dignity
of art appears most conspicuously
Music raises and ennobles everything
that it expresses, and covers with glory
all that it touches. 1t embodies in
itself all the elements of it's four sister
arts, and furnishes by it's chain of har-
mony the bands that bind the arts to-
gether. In its four parts of bass, tenor,
alto, and soprano we have the embodi-
ment of architecture, sculpture, paint
ing and poetry. In the bass we hear
the rumble of the thunder and the
crash of the thunderbolt; we are over
powered with the groanings of crea-
ton, and are stunned by the roll of the
spheres. In the tenor we discern the
development of life in creation, and
catch the intimation of being; upon our
listening ears there falls the cooling of
doves and the song of bright fsathered
birds. By the alto we are transported
into the region of human life and are
introduced to the sorroWs and trials of
humanity; to the realities and hard
ships of life; and hear also the begin
ningS of joy and gladnesS. In the So
prano, life is more completely express
ed; its aspirations, and longingS, and
desires here find utterance, and with
stately step the soul is carried into the
pure regions of heavens own harmony
Thus do the complete harmonies of the
divine art of music illustrate the life
of man for time and eternity; and thus
will they continually and eternally en-
bellish and fix in the mind the great
and important truths of life. Man does
not make the laws of music, he only
discovers them, and if he be self
willed and break them, there is an end
of music instantly, nothing is left but
discord and ugly sounds.
God is its author and not man; he laid
The keynote for all harmonies; He
planned
All perfect combinations; and He made
Us SO that we could hear and under
stand.
The power of music is undefinable;
it is frequently nostalgia; it sets men
to dreaming of another world; it fills
them with thoughts of infinite pas
sion and supreme happiness. It's i'm
pressions are the echoes of Paradise
in the soul; memories of an ideal eX-
istence whose sad sweetness ravages
and intoXicates the heart. Through all
the ages men have heard these haf-
monies and have known these divine
transports. Music carries us to heaven
because music is harmony, harmony
is perfection, perfection is our dream,
and our dream is heaven. This world
of strife and selfishness, of ugliness
and misery, makes US long for the
eternal peace and the alteration which
has no limits, and for the life which
has no end. When analysed, music
resolves itself into the elements Of
obedience, sympathy, emotion and
alteration.
Obedience is indeed but another name
for harmony. AS human life goes on
towards perfection it is simply gain
ing in obedience, until. like some Well
made engine, the whole fabric of Our
nature works In swift, silent, friction
less activities. Architecture, sculpture,
painting and poetry have their laws
which they must obey, but they are
addressed chiefly to the sense OF form,
to proportion, to color and rhythm, ana
end chiefly in sense OF mere beauty
and fitness; they are largely intel
in the intellect.
But music goes further and awakens
not only the intellect but our sympathy
Nc other art equals music in its power
to awaken the common feeling. A
patriotic hymn does it's work far more
surely than does an argument for the
constitution. Indeed the main office of
music is to secure sympathy; and
grand melodies lead men away from
seIfishness and point to that harmony
of thought and feeling towards which
humanity is struggling. In such
manner does it awaken our emotion
until we find all history eliminating
in song. Thus music is the truest ex-
preston OF mans alteration. 1t covers
the whole scale of inorganic and or
ganic being, and reaches from time to
eternity from q slumber song to the
Hallelujah chorus. Music is the art
path to Cod in whom we live, and
move. and have our being; lapDed in its
harmony and soaring in its alterations,
humanity is lifted into that upper
world where the discords of time and