St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1896-11-28
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The influence OF Music Upon the
Souls OF Mon,


'sThe Chant Of the Stars" before his
Washington congregation. taking for
his text:
morning stars sang togcther.-Job xxxviii. 81.
We have seen the ceremony 1T the Law
ing of the cornerstone Of the church,
asylum or masonic temple. Into the
hollow Of the stone were placed scrolls
of history and important documents,
10 be suggestive if, 100 or 200 years af-
ter, the building should be destroyed
by fire or torn down. We remember
the silver trowel or iron hammer that
smote the square piece OF granite into
sanctity. We remember some venera-
bic man who presided welding the
trowel or hammer. We remember also
the music rs the choir stood on the
scattered stones and timber OF the
building about to be constructed. Tho
leaves of the notebooks duttered in
the wind, and were turned over with
. great rustling, aud we remember
how the bass, barytone. tenor, con-
tralto and soprano voices commingled.
They had for many days been rehears'
ing the special programme, that it
might be worthy of the cornerstone
laying.
In my text the poet of u calls us to
. grander ceremony-the laying OF the
foundation Of this great temple OF
world. The cornerstone was block
of light and the trowel was of celes-
tial crystal. All about and on the en-
bankments of clouds stood the angelic
choristers unrolling their librettos of
| overture, and other worlds clapped
shining cvmbais while the ceremony
went on, and God, the architect, by
stroke of light after stroke Of light,
dedicated this great cathedral Of a
world. with mountains for pillars, and
sky for frescoed ceiling, and Towering
fields for floor, and sunrise and mid
night aurora for upholstery. "WhO
laid the cornerstone thereof, when
the morning stars sang together2"
The fact is that the whole universe
was a complete cadence, an unbroken
dithyramb, q musical portfolio. Tho
great sheet of immensely had been
spread out, and written ON it were the
stars, the smaller of them minims, the
larger of them sustained notes. The
mete0rs marked the staccato passages,
the whole heavens . gamut with al
sounds, intonations, mOdulations, the
space between the worlds . musical
interval, trembling of stellar light .
quaver, the thunder . bass clef, the
wind among trees . treble clef That
is the way God made all things q per-
feet harmony.
But one day harp string snapped
in the great orchestra. Ono day .
voice sounded out of tune. One day q
di.cord, harsh and terrific, grated up
on the glorious antiphon. 1t was sin
that made the diss0nance, and that
harsh discord has been sounding
through the centuries. All the work
of Christians and philanthropists and
reformers of all ages is to stop that
discord and get all things back into
the perfect harmony which was heard
at the laying of the cornerstone when
the morning stars sang together. Be.
fore get through. If l am divinely
helped. ! will make it plain that sin Is
diacord and Righteousness harmony.
That, in general, things are ont Of
tune is as plain as to . musicians ear
is the unhappy clash of clarionet and
bassoon in m orchestral rendering.
The worlds health out Of tune:
Weak lungs and the atmosphere in
collision. disordered eye and MONDAY
light in quarrel rheumatic limb and
damp weather in struggle, nearalgias
and pneumOnias aud consumptions
and epilepsies in Aoclks. sweep upoa.|
ghborhoods and cities. Where you
ind one person with sound throat and
keen oversight. and alert ear and easy
respiration. and regular pulsation and
supple limb, and prime digestion and
steady nerves, you find hundred who
have to be very careful because this or
that or the other physical function b
disordered.
The uman intellect out of tune:
The judgment wrongly swerved or the
memory leaky or the will or the tenn
per inflammable, the well-balanced
mind exceptional.
Domestic life out Of tune: Only hero
and there q conjugal outbreak Of in
compatibility Of temper through the
divorce courts. or . filial outbreak
about a fathers will through the sur
rogate's court, or q case OF wife-beat- |
ing or misunderstanding through the
criminal courts, but thousands of |
families with June outside and Janu- |
airy within.
Society out of Tune: Labor and
capital, their hands ON each others
throat Spirit Of caste keeping those |
down in the social scale who are
struggling to get up, and putting those
who are up in anxiety lest theNDhave |
I'd Some down. No wonder the old |
pisnolorte Of society il al out ftune,
when hypocrisy. and lying, and sub |
tdrfuge. and double-dealing. and sy-
cophancy. and charlsnism. and re-
venge.. have for six thousand years |
been banging away 1t the keys and |
stampingsrhe pedalA SIS
On all sides there 10 shipwreck of |
hArmonies. Nations in discord with |
OFT realizing it; 80 wrong is the feel
ing of nation for nation that symbols /
chosen are fierce and destructive. In
this country, where our ssies are full
Of robins and doves and morning larka,
wb have orr national symbol the fierce
add filthy eagle, ~ cruel bird as can
b found in all the archaeological cata-
logues. In Great; Britain, where they
hsve lambs and fallow deer, their
8 ymbol il the merciless lion. In Rus
Gid. where between her frozen
north and blooming south Ill
kindly beasts dwell. they chose the
growing bear; and in the worlds her
alnry . favorite figure il the dra gon,
the tabled winged serpent, ferocious
ard dreadful. And 90 fond is the
wprld Of contention that we climb ont
through the heavens and bsptize one
OF the other planeta with the spirit Of
b{ttle and call it Mafs, after tho god
Of war. and we give to the eighth sign
Of the zodiac the name of the scorpion.
. creature hich il chiefly celebrated
fdf its deadly sting. But. after all,
these symbols are expressive Of tho
Wy nation feels toward nation. Dis
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