The Monitor-register., 1897-10-01
THE POWER OF MUSIC
IMPORTANCE OF CONGREGATIONAL
SINGING IN CHURCHES.

IMPORTANCE OF CONGREGATIONAL
SINGING IN CHURCHES.
Rev. DIR. Talmage Says There Are -Four
Schools of Singing, the New One Being
the School of Christ Helps and OBJ
stacles. - A
WASHINGTON, Sept. 26.-Dr. Talmage
in this discourse rallies the churches to
more hearty congregational singing and
calls upon instruments of music to join
in the praise of God. The text is II
Chronicles v, IS, sit came even to pass,
as the trumpeters and singers were as
one, to make Ii sound to be heard in
praising and thanking the Lord"
The temple was done. 1t was the
very chorus Of all magnifcence and
pomp. Splendor crowded against SPLEEN
dor. 1t was the diamond necklace of
the earth. From the huge pillars crown-
ed with leaves and flowers and rows of
pomegranate wrought out in FURNISHED
metal down even to the tongS and
shutters made out of pure gold every
thing was as complete as the God direct
ed architect could make it. 1t seemed
as IL q vision from heaven had alighted
on the mountains. The day for dedica-
ton came. Tradition says that there
were in and around about the temple on
that day 200, 900 silver trumpets, 40, 900
harps, 40, 900 timbrels and 200, 900
singers, SO that all modern demonstra-
lions at Dusseldorf or Boston seem
nothing compared with that. AS this
great sound surged up amid the precious
stones of the temple it must have SEEM
ed like the river of life dashing against
the amethyst of the wall of heaven.
The sound arose, and God, as if to show
that he was we'll pleased with the mu-
sic which his children make in all ages,
dropped into the midst of the temple a
cloud of glory SO overpowering that the
officiating priests were obliged to stop
in the midst of the services.
Sacred Music.
There has been much discussion as to
where music was born. 1 think that at
the beginning, "when the morning stars
sang together and all the sons of God
shouted for joy" the earth heard the
echo. The cloud on which the angels
stood to celebrate the creation was the
birthplace of song. The stars that gilt
ter at night are only SO many keys of
celestial pearl On which Gods fingers
play the music of the spheres. Inani-
mate nature is full of Gods stringed
and wind instruments. Silence itself
perfect silence-is only a musical rest
in Gods great anthem of worship.
Wind among the leaves, insect hum
ming in the summer air, the rush of
billow upon beach, the ocean far out
sounding its everlasting psalm, the
bobolink on the edge of the forest, the
quail whistling up from the grass, are
music. While visiting Blackwell's
island / heard, coming from a window
of the lunatic asylum, a very sweet
song. 1t vas sung by who had lost
her reason, and 1 have come to believe
that even the deranged and disordered
elements of nature would make music
to our ear if we only had acuteness
enough to listen. / suppose that even
the sounds in nature that are discordant
and repulsive make harmony in Gods
ear. You know that you may come SO
near to an. orchestra that the sounds are
painful instead of pleasurable, and I
think that we stand SO near devastating
storm and frightful whirlwind we can
not hear that which makes to Gods ear
and the ear of the spirits above us a
pnucio or oArnD1a@o n q - &c f,o,,o-lD,1
I propose to speak about sacred music,
first showing you it's importance and
then stating some of the obstacles to its
advancement.
/ draw the first argument for the i'm
portance of sacred music from the fact
that God commanded it. Through Paul
he tells us to admonish one another in
psalms and hymns and spiritual songs
Through David he cries out, "Sing We
to God, all We Kingdoms of the earth. -
And there are hundreds of other pas
sages l might name, proving that it is
as much a mans duty to sing as it is
his duty to pray. Indeed l think there
are more commands in the Bible to sing
h a there are to pray. God not only
asks for the human voice, but for the
instruments of music. He asks for the
cymbal and the harp and the trumpet.
And l suppose that in the last days of
the church the harp, the lutte, the trum-
pet and all the instruments of music
that have given their chief aid to the
theater and bacchanal, will be brought
by their masters and laid down at the
feet OF Christ and then sounded in the
church's triumph on her way from suf-
fering into glory. "Praise We the Lordl''
Praise him with your voices. Praise
him with stringed instruments and with
organs. rs
3ss Secular Music.
I draw another argument for the i'm
p~ortance of this exercise from the i'm
pressiveness of the exercise. You know
something of what secular music has
achieved. You know it has made its i'm
preston upon governments, upon laws,
upon literature, upon whole genera
lions. One inspiring national air is
worth 80, 900 men as a standing army.
There comes a time in the battle when
n bugle is worth 1, 200 muskets. In
the earlier part of our civil war the
government proposed to economic in
bands of music, and many of them were
sent home, but the generals in the ar
my sent word to Washington: "You
are making a very great mistake. We
are falling back and falling back. We
have not enough music" 1 have to tell
you that no nation or church can afford
to severely economic in music.
Why should we rob the programmes
of worldly gayety when we have SO
many appropriate songs and tunes COM
posed in our own day, as well as that
magnificent inheritance of church
psalmody which has come down fra
grant with the devotions of other gen.
erations-tunes no more worn out than
when our greatgrandfathers climbed
up on them from the church pew to
glory? Dear old souls, how they used to
singl And in those days there were csr-
tain tunes married to certain hymns,
and they have lived in peace a great
while, these two old people, and we
have no right to divorce them. Born as
we have been amid this great wealth of
church music, augmented by the COM
positions of artists in our day, we ought
not to be tempted out of the sphere of
Christian harmony and try to seek un-
consecrated sounds. 1t is absurd for q
millionaire to steal. css sW
Many of you are illustrations of what
a sacred song a do. Through it you
were brought into the kingdom of Jesus
Christ. You stood out against the warn
ing and the argument of the pulpit, but
when, in the sweet words of Charles
Wesley or John Newton or Toplady, the
love of Jesus was sung to your soul,
then you surrendered, as an armed cas-
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