Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1897-10-02

and as he began to sing the dying sol
der turned over on his pillow and said
to the minister, Where did you learn
that?' Why" replied the minister,
"my mother taught me that. y So did
mine, said the dying soldier, and the
very foundation of his heart was up
turned, and then and there he yielded
himself to Christ Oh, it has an ire
sistible power! Luthcr's sermons have
been forgotten, but his Judgment
Hymn" sings on through the ages and
will keep on singing until the blast of
the archangcl's trumpet shall bring
about that very day which the hymn
celebrates. would to God that you
would take these songs of salvation as
messages from heaven, for just as GER
tainly as the birds brought food to Eli
iah by the brock Cherith so these wing
ed harmonies Goa sent, are flying to
your soul with the bread of life. Open
your mouth and take it, o hungry Eli
jah!
Soothing Music.
l have also noticed the power of sa-
cred song to soothc perturbation. You
may have come in here with great
many worriments and anxieties, yet
perhaps III The singing of the first hymn
you lost them ALL You have read in the
Bible of Saul, and how he was sad and
angry and how the boy David came in
and played the evil spirit out of him. A
Spanish king was melancholy. Tho
windows were all closed. He sat in
the darkness. Nothing could bring him
forth until Francli camo and discourscd
music for three or four days to him. On
the fourth day he looked up and wept
and rcjoiced, and the windows were
thrown open and that which all the
splendors of the court could not do the
power of song accomplished. If you
have anxieties and worrimcnts, try this
heavenly charm upon them. Do not sit
down on the bank of the hymn, but
plunge i'll, that the devil of care may
be brought out of you.
1t also arouscs to action. Do you not
know that singing church is always Il
triumphant church? If Il congregation
is silent during the exercise, or partially
silent, it is the silence of death. Ii
when the hymn is given out you hear
the faint hum of here and there father
and mother III Israel, while the vast
majority are silent, that minister of
Christ who is presiding needs to have a
very strong constitution if he does not
get the chills He needs not only the
grace of God but nerves like whalebone.
1t is amazing how some people with
voice enough to discharge all their du-
ties in the world, when they come into
the house of God have no voice to dis
charge this duty. I really believe that
if the church of Christ could rise up
and sing as it ought to sing, where we
have 100 souls brought into the king
dom of Christ there would be 1000.
How was it in olden time? Cajetan
said, Luther conquered us by his
songs. -
But must now speak of some of the
obstacles in the way of the advancement
of this sacred music, and the first is
that it has been impressed into the serv-
ice of satan. am far from believing
that music ought always to be positive
" religious. Refined art has opened
places where music has been secular
lied, and lawfully so. The drawing
room, the concert, by the gratifica-
ton of pure taste and the produc-
ton of harmless amusement and the
improvement of talent, have become
very forces in the advancement OF our
civilization. Music has as much right
to laugh III Surrey gardens as it has to
pray in St. Paul's. In the kindgom of
nature we have the glad fling of the
wind as we'll as the long meter psalm OF
the thunder. But, while all this is so,
every observer has noticed that this art,
which God intended for the improve
ment of the ear, and the voice, and the
head, and the heart, has often been I'M
pressed into the service Of error. Tar
tint, the musical composer, dreamed
one night that satan snatched from his
hand al Instrument and played upon it
something very swcet-a dream that
has often been fulfilled in our day-the
voice and the Instruments that ought to
have been devoted to Christ captured
from the church and applied to the pur-
poses of sin.
Fear of Criticism.
Another obstacle has been an irordi-
nate fear CT criticism The vast majority
of people singing in church never want
ANYBODY else to hear them sing Every
body is waiting for somebody else to do
his duty. If VIC all sang, then the mac
crracics that are .uent WHOM only