Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1896-11-10

seems to me that sin is getting out of
harmony with God, disagreement
with his holiness, with his purity, with
his love, with his commands, our will
clashing with his will, the finite dash
ing against the infinite, the frail
against the puissant. the created
against the Creator If thousand mu-
sicians, with flute and cornet-a piston,
and trumpet. and violonccllo, the haut-
boy, and trombone, and all the wind
and stringed instruments that ever
gathered in Dusseldorf jubilee should
resolve that they would play out of
tune, and put concord to the rack, and
make the place wild with shrieking
and grating and rasping sounds, they
could not make such a pandemonium
as that which RACES in sinful soul
when God listens to the play of it's
thoughts. passions, and en- otion-dis-
cord. lifelong dscord, maddening dis
cord.
In olden the choristers had tun-
ing fork with two prong5, and they
would strike 1t on the back of pew or
music rack, and put il to the ear, and
then start the tune, and all the other
voices would join. In modern orches-
ira the leader has complete instru-
ment rightly attuned, and he sounds
that, and all the other performers tune
the keys Of their instruments to make
them correspond, and draw the bow
over the string and listen, and sound it
over again, until all the keys are
screwed to concert pitch, and the dis
cords melt into one great symphony,
and the curtain hoists, and the baton
taps, and audiences are raptured with
Schumann's Paradise and the Peri"
or Rossini's "Stabat Mater" or Bachs
Magnificent" in d.
Now, our world can never be attuned
by an imperfect instrument. Even a
Cremona would not do. Heaven has
ordained the only instrument, and it
is made out of the wood Of the cross,
and the voices that accompany 1t are
imported voices, cantatrices OF the
first Christmas night, when heaven
serenaded the earth with GLORY to
God in the highest, and on earth
peace, good will to men," Lest we
start too far off and get lost in
generalities, We had better begin with
| ourselves, get our own hearts and lives
| in harmony with the eternal Christ.
Oh, for his Almighty Spirit to attune
us. to chord our will with his will. 10
modulate our life with his life, and
| bring lis into unison with all that is
! pure, and self-sacriflcing, and heaven
! lyl The strings our nature are all
| broken and twisted. and the bow is
! so slack it cannot evoke anything
| mellifluous. The instrument made for
heaven to play on has been roughly
twanged and struck by influences
worldly and demoniac. o master hand
of Christ, restore this split, and frac-
tured, and despoiled, and unstrung ma
ture, until first it shall wall out for our
sin and then thrill with Divine pardon!
The whole world must also be at
tuned by the same power. / was in
the Fairbanks Weighing Scale Manu-
factory, of Vermont. Six hundred
hands. and they have never had a
strike. Complete harmony between
labor and capital, the operatives Of
scores of years in their beautiful homes
near by the mansions OF The manu-
facturers, whose invention and Chris
tan behavior made the great enter
prise: So. all the world over. labor and
capital will be brought into euphony.
You may have heard what is called the
Anvil Chorus" composed by Verdi,
a tune played by hammers, great and
small, now with mighty stroke, and
now with heavy stroke, beating great
iron anvil. That is what the world
has got to come to-anvil chorus, yard
stick chorus, shuttle chorus, trowel
chorus, crowbar chorus. pickaxe
chorus, gold-mine chorus, rail-track
chorus. locomotive chorus. 1t can be
done. and il will be done. So all social
life will be attuned by Gospel harp.
There will be as many classes in So
ciety as now, but the classes will not be
regulated by birth, nor wealth, nor ac-
cident. but by the scale of virtue and
benevolence, and people will be as
signed to their places as good. or very
good, or most excellent. So. also, COM
mercial life will be attuned, and there
will be twelve in every dozen, and six
teen ounces in every pound, and APP
pies at the bottom of the barrel will
be as sound as those on the top, and
silk goods will not be cotton, and SELL
ers will not have to charge honest
people more than the right price be-
| cause others will not pay, and goods
! will come TO you corresponding with
the sample by which you purchased
| them, and coffee will not be chicoried.
and sugar will not be sanded. and milk
! will not be chalked, and adulteration
] of food will be a State prison offense.
| Aye, all things shall be attuned. Elec-
/ tions in England and the United States
| will no more be a grand carnival OF
defamation and scurrility, but the ele-
walton of righteous men in righteous
way.
| Heaven is to have a new song, an en-
| tirely new song, but would not wonder
| il, as sometimes on earth a tune is fash
Toned out of many tunes, or it is one
/ tune with the variations. so some OF
| the songs OF the redeemed may have
| playing through them the songs of
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