The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1897-10-09

ought not to be tempted out Of the
sphere of Christian harmony. and try
TO seek unconsecrated sounds. 1t Is
absurd for millionaire to steal.
Many of you are illustr atoms OF
what a sacred song can do. Through
1t you were brought into the kingdom
of Jesus Christ You stood out against
the warning and the argument Of the
pulpit, but when, in the sweet words
of Charles Wesley or John Newton OF
Toplady, the love of Jesus was sung to
" ur soul, then you surrendered, as an
armed castle that could not be taken
by host. lifts its window to listen to q
harp's trill.
There was 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
began to sing a familiar hymn that
was composed by David Dickinson, be-
ginning with the words:
Oh mother dear, Jerusalem,
When shall come to theef
He sang it to the tune of Dundee, and
everybody in Scotland knows that;
and, as he began to sing, the dying
soldier 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 tb~ e he
yielded himself to Christ. o., 1T has
an irresistible power. Luther's SER
mons have been forgotten, but his
Judgment Hymn sings on through the
ages, and will keep on singing until
the blast of the archangels trumpet
shall bring about that very day which
the hymn celebrates. l would to God
| that you would take these songs of
salvation as messages from Heaven; for
| just as certainly as the birds brought
! food to Eli jah by the brook Cherith, so
these winged harmonies, God-sent, are
! dying to your soul with the bread of
| life. Open your mouth and take it, o
hungry Elijah!
have also noticed the power Of sa-
cred song to soothe perturbation. You
may have come in here with a great
many worriments and anxiety, 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. 4 Spanish king was
melancholy. The windows were all
closed. He sat in the darkness. Moth
ing could bring him forth until Fra
nell 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 anxi-
cites 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 may be
| brought out of you.
1t also arouses to action. Do you
not know that singing church is all
ways triumphant church? If con-
gregation is silent during the exercise
or partially silent, it is the silence of
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 constitu-
ton il he does not get the chills. lie
needs not only the grace OF God, but
nerves like whalebone. 1t 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.
really believe that if the Church of
| Christ could rise up and sing as it
ought to sing, where we have hun
dred souls brought into the kingdom
! of Christ there would be n thousand.
! How was it in olden times? Caietan
said: Luther conquered us by his
songs"
| But l must now speak of some of the
obstacles in the>way of the advance
ment of this sacred music, and the first
! is that il has been impressed into the
service of SATAN / ain far from believ-
! ing that music ought always to be posi-
lively religious Refined art has opened
| places .Wnefe music mas been sec
ularized, and awfully So The draw
ing-room, the concert, by the gratfica-
ton of pure taste, and the production
of harmless amusement and the i'm
provement OF talent, have become very
strong forces in the ADVANCEMENT
of our civilization. Music has rs much
right to laugh in Surrey gardens as it
has to pray in st. Pauls. In the king
dom OF nature we have the glad fling
of the wind as well as the long me tire
psalm of the thunder. Bat, while all
this is SO, every observer has noticed
that this art, which God Intended for
the Improvement of the ear and the
voice, and the head and the heart, has
often been impressed into the service
of error. Tartini, the musical com.
poser. dreamed one night that Satan
snatched from his hand an instrument
and played upon it something very
sweet--a dream that has often been
fulfilled in our day, the voice and tho
instruments that ought to have been