The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1896-11-12
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
TIE influence Of Music Upon the
Souls q Men.
The &c liant OF the Stars" Referred to By
Jpb-Ihe Great Peace Jubilee In
Boston in 1860 Most ElO-
queniIy Described.


1.-The Chant Of the Stars" before his
Washington congregation, taking for
his text:
Who laid the corner store thereof, when the
morning stars sang together.-Jtb XXXVNl, 81.
We have seen the ceremony a 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,
to be suggestive if, 100 or 200 years at
ter, the building should be destroyed
by fire or torn down. We remember
the silver trowel or iron hammer that
smote the square p.cce Of granite into
hanctity. We remember some venera-
BILE man who presided welding the
trowel or hammer. rememb Der also
the music as the choir stood on the
scattered stones and timber OF the
building about to be constructed. The
leaves of the notebooks huttered i'll
the wind, and were turned over with
great rustling, and we remember
how the bass, BARITONE, tenor, con-
tralto and soprano voices colnmingied.
They had for many days been rehears.
ing the special programme, that 1T
might be worthy of the cornerstone
laying.
In my text the poet Of u calls us to
a grander ceremony-the laying of the
foundation of this great temple of
world. The corner stone was block
of light and the trOwel was of celcs-
tial crystal. All about and on the en-
barkments of clouds stood the angelic
choristers unrolling their librettos of
overture, and other worlds clapped
shining cymbals 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. "Nho
laid the cornerstone thereof, when
the morning stars sang together?'
The fact is that the whole universe
was a complete cadence, an unbroken
dithyramb, musical portfolio. The
great sheet Of immensely had been
spread out, and written Oh it were the
stars, the smaller Of them minims, the
larger of them sustained notes. The
meteors marked the staccato passages,
the whole heavens a gamut with all
sounds, intonations, modulations, the
space between the worlds musical
interval, trembling of stellar light a
quaver, the thunder a bass clef, the
wind among trees treble clef. That
Is the way God made all things per-
feet harmony.
But one day harp string snapped
IN the great orchestra. One day a
voice sounded ont of tune One day a
discord, harsh and terrific, grated up
ON the glorious antiphon. 1t was sin
that made the dissonance, and that
harsh disccrd 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 lay ing Of the cornerstone when
the morning stars sang together. Be
fore l get through, if | am divinely
helped. will make it plain that sin is
discord and Righteousness harmony.
That, in general, things are out OF
tune is as plain as to a musicians ear
is the unhappy clash of clarionet and
bassoon in an 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, neural ias
aud pneumonias and consumptions
and epilepsies in tlocks, sweep upor
neigh borho and cities. Where yor
find one person with sound threat ant
keen eveysight, and alert ear and easy
respiration, and regular pulsation ant
supple limb, and prime digestion anG
steady nerves, you find a hundred who
have to be very careful because this O,
that or the other physical function i.
disordcred.
The human intellect out of tune
The Judgment wrongly swerved or the
memory leaky or the will or the tenn
per intiammable, the well-balancec
mind exceptional.
Domestic life out of tune: Only here
and there conjugal outbreak of in
compatibility of temper through the
NA'oANS Soul tos Va Il hIidl ouUuTedE
about fathers will through the sur
rogate's court, or 4 case of wife beat
ing or husba nd-poisoning through tn,
criminal courts, but thousands O.
families with June outside and Janu
airy within.
Society out of Tune: Labor ant
capital, their hands Oh each other
throat. Spirit of caste keeping those
down in the social scale who ar,
struggling to getup, and putting thos,
who are up in anxiety lest they hav,
TO come down. No wonder the ole
pianoforte of society is all out Of tune
when hypocrisy, and lying, and sub
terfuge, and double-dealing, and sy
cophancy, and charlanism, and re
venge, have for six thousand year
ceen banging away at the keys ant
stamping the pedals.
On all sides there is a shipwrecls G
harmonies. Nations in discord with
out realizing it; SO wrong is the feel
ing of nation for nation that symbol
chosen are fierce and destructive. II
this country, where our skies are full
of robins and doves and morninC Ia ri, G