The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1895-10-26

ed. He declared that it should never
happen so again. He reached town late
Saturday night and had heard only
about the war. He knew nothing of
the declaration of peace, or, rather,
knew nothing of the armistice Of SIX
months.
So, when the first hymn was given
put, the choir made that pause Of n
little minute fiuttering it's wings and
smoothing its plumage before it broke
into song. The silence smote upon the
heart of Deacon Standfnst, still rank
ling with sense of the indignity put
upon his beloved pastor. lie arose to
his feet, drew up his muscular figure
until he loomed up like Saul among his
brethren-'from his shoulders and up
ward higher than any of the people
filed his lungs, and in mighty voice
that had echoed over the surging backs
of many horned herd on the storm
swept prairies, a resourding shout of
far-reaching cadences that was quail
fled to paralyze n stampeded steer irto
forgetfulncss of the terror that was
driving him into frenzy, he raised the
tune" Alas, for the service of the sane
tuary, out of that strength came forth
no sweetness, for Deacon Standfast
could not distinguish funeral dirge
from college YELL And he roared off
the first verse of that hymn by himself
But he was enough. He needed no
reinforcement. With open mouths,
dumb with amazement, that choir
stood in its silent place waitirg for him
to reach the end of the StanZa, intend
ing to waylay him and head him off on
the second. Vain hope! They did not
know his powers of endurance. lie
drew but one long, deep brcath at the
end of the closing line and went right
on with the next verse, developing
cumulative power with the exhla,n-
ton of his work, until he wound up the
long hymn with n long-drawn halloo
that sounded like n cross between war
whoop and hallclujah. One by one
the silent choir sat down as that tune
less hymn progressed, but the congrc-
CATION, although not venturing to "as-
sist," stood by most molly while nea-
con Standfast Justify sang his first ard
|
never sang again; not even in chorus.
After that break, however, all went
fairly well for several weeks, maybe
n month. Then the congregation stool
up at eight o'clock one Sunday night
and sang:
once more, my. soul, the rising day
Statutes thy waking eyes"
And once the morning service opened
with the hymn:
Lord dismiss us with thy blessing"
But rs not more than one singer in u
hundred, perhaps, sings Il hymn with
any thought of its meaning, simply con-
sidering the words as rather useless
necessities, merely put in to vocaIizc
the music, the incongruity of the Sc
4 lection did not strike more than three
| or POUR people beside the preacher,
and they We're not present. But the
Sunday morning following that the
leader came to the preacher before sery-
ice, with troubled face and said:
'Looll here, Mr.. Seekpcace, this will
never do ut ALL"
"Well. what is the matter now?"
why" said the leader, this opening
hymn. 1t is
"' Brother, thou vast mild and lovely.
| Gentle as the summer breeze;
Pleasant as the air of evening
| When II floats among the trees
Now, there has been but one death i'm
this church IN the past six weeks, and
that was old Dodd Swearinger, who
got so mad the other day while he was
beating his horse with a pick handle
that he fell down in a fit and died in
two minutes--a man with the worst
temper in the state of Illinois. We
can't sing that, Mr.. Seckpeace."
The preacher melted at the sight OF
the leaders appealing face. lIesmiled,
n pleasant smile that might have had
two shades of meaning in it. He may
have been pleased to meet n man who
recognized the fact that hymn with
out appropriate words is about as virile
u skeleton. Or he may have been
pleased about something else. Any
how, he smiled without permitting Il
CLEAN of triumph to shine across his
face. lie said: "Ncry WE'LL" and Sc
lected, hymns for morning and evening
service.
There was never again the shadow
of trouble between the choir and the
pulpit of that church. Other leaders
came and went. The choir changed,
as choirs do; changing voices drove out
the boys who sang soprano or alto
| soprano-we used to call it "trible,"
didn't we? Marriage closed the mouths
of the girls, who, womanlike, appeared
to consider il solemn, religious duty
to forget their music" after the first
baby was born. Bassos and tenors
came and went. But so long as that
preacher was pastor the choir in that
church sang the hymns appointed them,
and it was generally understood, al
though nothing was ever said about it,
that the head of that church was on it's
shoulders, and not on the neck of a
music-rack stand.-Ladies' Home Jour
nal.
| GXe!
IVA E-SAss.sS s.