The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-10-05

Charles Wesley or John Newton or
Toplady, the love of Jesus was sung
an armed castle that could not be
taken by a host lifts its window to lis
ten to a 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 q familiar hymn that was
composed by David Dickinson, begin
ming with the words:
Oh. mother dear, Jerusalem,
When shall / come to thee?
He sang it to the tune of Dundee"
and 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 min
lister, my mother taught me that"
$50 did mine," said the dying soldier,
and the very foundation Of his heart
was upturned, and then and there he
yielded himself to Christ. Oh, it has
an irresistible power! Luther's sermons
have been forgotten, but his "Judg-
ment Hymn" sings on through the
ages and will keen on singing until the
blast of the archangers trumphet shall
bring about that very day which the
hymn celebrates. I would to God that
o would take these songs of saliva
ton as messages from heaven, for
just as certainly as the birds brought
food to Ethan by the brook Cherith so
these winged harmonies God sent are
flying to your soul with the bread Of
life. Open your mouth and take it,
o hungry Elijah!
SOOTHING MUSIC.
I 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
read in the Bible Of Paul, and how he
was sad and angry n how the boy
David came in and played the evil
spirit put Of him. A Spanish king was
melancholy. The windows were all
closed. He sat in the darkness. Moth
ing 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 rejoic-
ed, 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 anx-
ieties and worriments, try this heaven
ly charm upon them. Do not sit down
on the bank of the hymn, but plunge
in, that the devil Of care nay be
brought out of you.
It also arOses to action. Do you not
know that a singing church is always
a, triumphant church? If a congrega-
partially silent, it is the silence OF
particularly silent, it is the silence Of
DEATH. If when the hymn is given out
you heal the faint hum Of here n
there a father and mother in Isreal,
while the vast majority are silent, that
minister Of Christ who is presiding
needs to AVE a very strong constitu-
ton if he does not get the chills. He
needs not only the grace CT God, but
nerves like whalebone. It is amazing
how some people with voice enough to
discharge all their duties in the world,
when they come into the house of God
have no voice to discharge 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 kingdom of Christ
there would be 1000. How was it in
olden time? Cajetan said, Luther
conquered us by his songs"
But I must now speak Of some OF the
obstacles in the way Of the advance
ment Of this sacred music, and the
first is that it has been impressed into
the service of satan. I am far from be-
lieving that music ought always to be
positively religious. Refined art has
opened places where music has been Sc
cularized, and lawfully so. The draw
ing room, the concert, by the grat1h-
cation 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 in Surrey gardens as 1t has to
pray in st. Paul's. In the kingdom OF
nature we have the glad filing 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 i'm
provement Of the ear and the voice,
and the head, and the heart, has often
been impressed into 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 u day
the voice and the instruments that
ought to have been devoted to Christ
captured from the church and applied
to the purposes of sin.
FEAR OF CRITICISM.
Another obstacle has been an inordi-
nate fear of criticism. The vast ma
jority of people singing in church never
want anybody else to lear them
sing. Everybody is waiting for some
body else to do his duty. If we all
sang, the the inaccuracies that are
evident when only a few sing would
be drowned out. God asks you to do
as we'll as you can, and then if 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
loose your place in the musical scale or
come in at h close a bar behind.
There are three schools Of singing
am told-the German school, the Ital-
ian school and the French school OF
singing. Now I would like to add a
fourth school, and that is the school OF