The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1897-10-01


while, these two old people, and we
have no right to divorce them. Born az
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.
Many of you are illustrations of what
q sacred song can 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-
tie that could not be taken by a host
lifts it's window to listen to harp s
trill.
There was a Scotch soldier dying in
New Orleans, and a Scotch minister
came in to give him the consultations of
the gospel The man turned over on his
pillow and said, Don't talk to me
about religion. " Then the minister be-
gan to sing familiar hymn that was
conIosed by David Dickinson, begin
ming with the words:
ca mother dear, Jerusalem,
When shall come to theeP
TIC sang it to the tune of Dundee"
ard everybody in Scotland knows that,
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 " $50 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! Luther's sermons have
been forgotten, but his Judgment
Hymn" sings on through the ages and
will keep ON singing until the blast of
the archangel'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
jah by the brook Cherith so these wing
ed harmonies God 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 soothe perturbation. You
may have come in here with a great
many worriments and anxieties, yet
perhaps in 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. The
windows were all closed. He sat in
the darkness Nothing could bring him
forth until Franeli came and discoursed
music for three or four days to him. On
the fourth day he looked up and wept
and rejoiced, 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 worriments, try this
heavenly charm upon them. Do not sit
down on the bank of the hymn, but
plullSC LII bIlbO OI1O uCFlI VI StllO may
be brought out of you
1t also arouses to action. Do you not !
know that a singing church is always a
triumphant church? If congregation
is silent during the exercise, or partially
silent, it is the silence of death. If |
when the hymn is given out you hear
the faint hum of here and there father
and mother in Israel, while the vast
majority are silent, that minister of
Christ who is presiding needs to have
very Strong constitution if he does not
get the chillsL 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. 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
If this sacred music, and the first is
hat it has been impressed into the serv-
ice Of satan. l am far from believing
hat music ought always to be positive
~ religious Refined art has opened
places where music has been secular
zed, and lawfully so. The drawing
'oom, the concert, by the gratifca-
ion of pure taste and the produc-
ion of harmless amusement and the
of talent, have become
very forces in the advancement of our
Music has as much right
% laugh in 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 well as the long meter psalm of I
he thunder. But, while all this is so, {
very observer has noticed that this art, s
which God intended for the improve q
nent of the ear, and the voice, and the '
head, and the heart, has often been i'm 6
pressed into the service of error. Tar I
I'M, the musical composer, dreamed
me night that satan snatched from his :
land an instrument and Dlayed uDOn III Q