The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1897-10-07
glory? Dear old souls. how they used

SlOIy Lear Olu SOulS, now Lney uSeu
to sing! And in those days there were
certain tunes married to certain hymns
and they have lived in peace a great
while, these two old people, and we
have no right to divorce them Born
as we have been amid this great wealth
Of church music, augmented by the
compositions of artists in our day, we
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 illustrations of what
a 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 its windows to listen to a harp's
trill. = y
But / must now speak of some of the
obstacles in the way of the advance
~
is that it has been impressed into the
service of Satan. I am far from believ-
ing that music ought always to be posi-
lively religious. Refined art has open
ed places where music has been secu-
larized, and lawfully so. The drawing
room, the concert, by the qualification
Of pure taste and the production OF
harmless amusement and the improve
ment of talent. have become very
forces in the advancement of our civil
ization. Music has as much right to
laugh in Surrey Gardens as it has to
pray in St. Pauls. In the kingdom
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 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 the
instruments that ought to have been
devoted to Christ, captured from the
church and applied to the purposes of
| sin.
Another obstacle has been an 1nordi-
nate fear of criticism. The vast ma
]ority of people singing in church new
er want anybody else to hear them
sing. Everybody is waiting for some
body else to do his duty. If we all
sang then the inaccuracies that are
evident when only a few sang 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 voices.
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 singing, ]
am told-the German school, the Ital-
ian school, and the French school ,o1
singing. Now, I would like to add a
fourth school, and that is the school
of Christ. The voice of a contrite
broken heart, although it may not be
able to stand human criticism, makes
better music in Gods ear than the mos
artistic performance when the heart is
wanting. God calls on the beasts, or
the cattle, on the dragons, to praise
him, and we ought not to be behind the
. cattle and the dragons.
Another obstacle i'll the advancement
of this art has been the erroneous no
ton that this part of the service coul(
be conducted by delegation. Churche!
have said, 80, what an easy time W.
shall have. The minister will do tn,
preaching, and the choir will do thu
singing, and we will have nothing t,
do" And you know as we'll as l tina
there are a great multitude of churche
all through this land where the peopl
are not expected to sing. The who'll
work is done by delegation of four O
six or ten persons, and the audienc
are silent. In such church in Syria
cuse, an old elder persisted in sing
ing, and so the choir appointed a com
mittee to go and ask the elder if h
would not stop. You know that il
| uduy Cuul CucS lie CuOlT are 6XDeCC0
to do all the singing, and the grea
mass of the people are expected t.
be silent, and if you utter your voic
you are interfering. In that churc]
they stand, the four with opera-glasse
dangling at their side, singing ROC
of Ages, Cleft for Me-" with the sam
spirit that, the night before on tn
stage. they took their part in tn
Grand Duchess or Don Giovanni.
, My Christian friends, have we RICH
: to delegate to others the discharge {
, this duty which God demands of us
} Suppose that four wood-thrushes pre-
l pose to do all the singing some brigh
l day, when the woods are ringing wit
bird voices. 1t is decided that fou
= wood-thrushes shall do all of the sing
= ing of the forest. Let all other voice
i keep silent. How beautifully the fou
: MARBLE! 1t is really fine music. Bu
s how long will you keep the forest still
J., Why, Christ won't come into that fol
e est and look up, as he looked throug