Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1897-10-06

Wept ana relOlced. anu the WINDOWS Wero
thrown open and that which all the splen-
dors of the court could not do the power
OF song accomplished. II you have anxie-
ties and worriments, try this heavenly
charm upon them. Do not sit down on the
bank of the hymn, but plunge in, that the
devil of care may be brought out of you.
1t also arouses to action. Do you not
know that a singing church is always a
triumphant church? IL congregation Is
silent during the exercise, or partially
silent, 1t Is the silence of death. II when
the hymn is given out you hear the faint
hum of here and there a father and moth
er in Israel, while the vast majority are
silent, that minister of Christ who is PIE
siding needs to have a very strong consti-
tuition II he does not get the chiils. He
needs not only the grace of God, but
nerves like whalebone. 1t is amazing how
some people with voice enough to dis
charge all their duties in the world, when
they come into the house of God have no
voice to discharge this duty. | really be-
lieve 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? Caetan said.
Luther conquered us by his songs"
But 1 must now speak of some OF the
obstacles In the way of the advancement of
this sacred music, and the first is that 1t
has been impressed into the service of satan.
L am far from believing that music ought
always to be positively religious. Refined
art has opened places where music has
been secularized, and lawfully so. The
drawing room, the concert, by the gratifica-
tion of pure taste and the production 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 in Surrey
gardens as 1t has to pray in st. Pauns. In
the kingdom of nature we have the glad
fling of the wind as well 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. Tartini,
the musical composer, dreamed one night
that satan snatched from his hand an
instrument and played upon 1t something
very sweet-a dream that has often been
fulfilled in our day-the voice and the
instruments that ought to have been de-
voted to Christ captured from the church
and applied to the purposes of sin.
Another obstacle has been an inordinate
fear of criticism. The vast majority of
people singing in church never want any
body else to hear them sing. Everybody
Is waiting for somebody else to do his duty.
II we all sang, then the Inaccuracies
that are evident when only "A few sing
would be drowned out. God asks you to
do as well as you can, and then IL you get
the wrong pitch or keep wrong time He
will forgive any deficiency of the ear and
imperfection of the voice. Angels will not
laugh if you should lose your place in the
musical scale or come in at the close a bar
behind. There are three schools Of sing
ing | am told-the German school, the
Italian school and the French school of
singing. Now 1 would like to add fourth
school. and that is the school of Christ.
The ypipA N n eDnfritta hrpkRu heart al
though it may not be able to stand human
criticism, makes better music to Gods ear
than the most artistic performance when
the heart is wanting. God calls on the
beasts, on the cattle. on the dra CONS. to
praise Him, and we ought not to be behind
the cattle and the dragons.
Another obstacle in the Advancement of
this art has been the erroneous notion that
this part of the service could be conducted
by delegation. Churches have said: "Oh,
what an easy time we shall hayel The
minister will do the preaching, and the
choir will do the singing, and we will have
nothing to do" And you know as well as
| that there are great multitude of
churches all through this land where the
people are not expected to sing. The
whole work is.done by a delegation of four
or six or ten persons, and the audience are
silent. In such church in Syracuse an
old elder persisted in singing, and so the
the elder if he would not stop. You know
that in many churches the choir are ex-
pected to do all the singing, and the great
mass of the people are expected to be silent,
an1if you utter your voice you are int-r-
fering. In that church they stand, the
four, with opera glasses dangling at their
side, singing Rock of ages, cleft for me"
with the same spirit that, the night before
on the stage, they took their part in the
"Grande Duchesse" or Don Giovanni"
Music ought to rush from the audience
like the water from rock-clear, bright.
sparkling. If all the other part of the
church service is duh, do not have the
music dull. With so many thrilling things
to sing about away with all drawing and
stupidity, There is nothing makes me so
nervous as to sit in pulpit and look of on
an audience with their eyes three-fourths
closed and their lips Always shut, mumbling
the praises of God. During my recent ab-
sence preached to large audience, and
all the music they made together did not
equal one skylark. People do not sleep at
a coronation. Do not let us sleep when we
come TO Saviour's crowning. In order to a
proper discharge of this duty let us stand
up, save as age or weakness or fatigue ex-
cuses US. Seated in an easy pew we can
not do this duty half 50 well as when, up
right, we throw our whole body into 1t.
Let our song be like an acclamation OF vic
tory. You have a right to sing. Do not
surrender your prerogative.
We want to rouse all our families upon
this subject. We want each family of our
congregation to be a singing school. Child
ism petulance, sbduracy and intractability y
would be soothed if we had more singing il
the household, and then our little oD =.
would be prepared for the great congreg.
tion on Sabbath day, their voices uniting
with our voices in the praises the Lord
After shower there are scores of streams
that come down the mountain side with
voices ripping and silvery, pouring into
one river and then rolling in united
strength to the sea. So l would have al
the families in our church send forth the
voice of prayer and praise, pouring it into
the great tide of public worship that rolls
on and on to empty into the great, wide
| heart of God. Never can we have oui
church sing as 1t ought until our familie:
| sing as they ought.
There will be a great revolution on this
subject in all churches. God will comt
| down by his spirit and rouse up the ole
| hymns and tunes that have not been NOR,
| than half awake since the time of our grand
! fathers. The silent pews in the church will
| break forth into music, and when the con
| ductor takes his place on the sabbath da,
| there will be II great host of voices rushin,
| into the harmony. My Christian friends, I
| we have no taste for this service on cart
! what will we do in heaven, where the,
all sing and sing forever? | would tina
our singing to-day might be like the Satu
day night rehearsal for the sabbath NOR
ing in the Skies and we might begin no
| by the strength and by the help of God 81
discharge a duty which none of us has (,
performed. And now what more apprl
pirate thing can l do than to give out tn
doxology of the heavens, Unto Him VII
hath loved US and washed us from our sill
in His own blood, to Him be glory forever
He who receives a good turn shou
never forget it; he who does one, shou
never remember it.
Any one may do a casual act of 90
nature, but a continuation Of them sho