The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1896-11-13
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Tho Influence Of Music Upon the
Souls Of Men.
The "Chant OF tho Stars" Referred to by
Job--The Great Peace Jubilee In
Boston In 1860 Most Elo-
quentIy Described.

Boston in 1860 Most Elo-
quentIy Described.
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage delivered
the following sermon on the subject:
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.-Job xxxvii., 6-7.
We have seen the ceremony at 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 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 as the choir stood on the
scattered stones and timber of the
building about to be constructed. The
the wind, and were turned over with
a great rustling, and we remember
how the bass, barytone, tenor, con-
tralto and soprano voices commingled.
They bad for many days been rehears.
ing the special programme, that it
might be worthy of the cornerstone
laying.
III my text the poet of w calls us to
q grander ceremony the laying of the
foundation Of this great temple OF
world. The cornerstone was block
81 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 cYmbals while the ceremony
went on, and God, the architect, by
stroke Of light after stroke Of light,
dedicated this great cathed raj 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 together?"
The fact is that the whole universe
was complete cadence, an unbroken
dithyramb, musical portfolio. The
great sheet of immensely had been
spread out, and written on it were the
stars, the smaller of them minims, the
largerof them sustained notes. The
meteors marked the staccato passages,
the whole heavens gamut with all
sounds, intonations. modulations, the
space between the worlds a musical
Interval, trembling OF stellar light
nuaver, the thunder q 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
voice sounded out of tune. One day
discord, harsh and terrific, grated up
On the glorious antiphon. 1t was sin
that made the dissonance, and that
harsh discord has been sounding
through the centuries. All the work
Of Christians and philanthr opists and
reformers of all ages is to stop that
fiiscord 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
discord and righteousness harmony.
That, in general, things are out OF
tune is as plain as to musie2n's ear
Is the unhappy clash of clariohet 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, neuralglas
and pneumonias and consumptions
and epilepsies in foclks, sweep upon
ueirhborhoods and cities. Where you
lind one person with sound throat and
keen oversight, and alert ear and easy
respiration. and regular pulsation and
supple limb, and prime digestion and
steadv nerves, you finda hundred who
have to be very careful because this or
that or The other physical function Is
disordered.
The uman intellect out OF tune:
The Judgment wrongly swerved or the
memory leaky or the will or the tenn
per infiammable. the well-balanced
mind exceptional.
Domestic life out of tune: Only here
and there q conjugal outbreak OF in
compatibility Of temper through the
divorce courts, or q flial outbreak
about a fathers viii through the sur
rogate's court. or q case Of wife-oe
Ing or misunderstanding through the
criminal courts, but thousands Oh
families with June outside and Janu-
airy within.
Society out of Tune: Labor and
capital, their hands on each others