The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-01-18


music at sight as proof-reader reads
print. And they sang in way that
made everybody else sing. Every
body would sing anyhow, therefore
it was useless for the leader-nobody
called him the chorister then-to Sc
lect new tunes and spring them upon
the audience suddenly. The cons re-
cation would join in with all conf
dence just the same, on the second
word, and sing right along, only a
second or two behind If the hymn
was of the usual length, by the time
they sang through the third stanza
they knew the tune as well as the choir
did, and carried the remaining four
or five stanzas through with splendid
spirit. You see we weren't given to
short services in those days. There
was no reason why we should be. The
singing was never wears ONE, because
we did it all ourselves, and would
as soon have thought of hiring our
Sunday school teachers as our sing
ers. Inever bat once heard our min
lister chop hymn up into outlets and
have us omit the first and last stanzas
and hop over the third and fifth,
singing it as though we were playing
a game of musical hop-scotch, and
that was because he objected to some
faulty doctrine in one of the verses.
When he preached he said what he
had to say without the least regard
for the clock. AS he always had
something to say which we either
wanted or needed to hear, or both, it
never occurred to the congregation
that there was a great, round faced
clock on the front of the gallery, soft
ly ticking its subdued "amens" all
through the service. Our preacher
has been down east great many
years teaching preachers how to
preach, so we may get back to the
life-size sermons and whole hymns
again.
Well, that choir was SO praised and
lauded, and deservedly SO, that at
last it exalted its horn like the "horn
of an unicorn" and decided to take
entire charge of the musical portion
of the service. The leader, young
man of sublime confidence, splen-
did voice, long curling hair tucked
under at the ends, as was the fashion
with young men of that day, like the
jack of spades, if you know what that
is, and a wealth of bears grease, flaw
ored with bergamot, came to the
preacher and said "Mr. Seekpeace, I
must have the hymns for Sunday
service on Friday morning hereafter.
l have changed rehearsal from Sat
urday to Friday evening"
But [ can't let you have them Fri
day morning." the preacher said, "be
cause | do not always know at that
time what l will preach about ON the
Sunday following. You may have
them Saturday morning, as usual"
But the leader would not have it
that way, and he said SO. The
preacher was man not given to con-
troversy in small matters. He said
what he had to say ON the subject in
few words selected from the Eng
lish language, principally monosylla-
bles, and went his way, as also did
the leader, their ways beginning at
the same point and running respec-
lively east by east and due west,
The preacher sent the leader the
numbers of the hymns on the morn
ing of the Saturday following.
Sunday morning dawned. The
congregation, painfully arrayed in
stiff and starched and rustling gar
ments sacred to the day and the
place, assembled with customary de-
corum. One by one the deacons
walked up the aisles to their places,
timing their steps with mournful
squeaks that deepened the solemnity
of the hour and awakened mirth only
in the breasts of the younger chill
dren, who were promptly thumped to
respectful silence by the catapult of
some adult finger, The hymn was
given out, and all the hymn books in
the pews rustled open. We listened
for the usual little muffied commo-
ton of the choir getting into position
with it's little business of small af-
fectations, but there was most fear
some silence. We turned our heads,
looked up and saw gallery as empty
as the foreign mission treasury at the
close of the year. The presence of
the singers scattered here and there
among the congregation was ex-
planned. Some light-hearted mem
bers of the choir Uttered but the rest
of US were little bit frightened. The
preacher looked up quickly and I'M