Connecticut western news., 1897-09-30
THE POWER OF MUSIC
IMPORTANCE OF CONGREGATIONAL
 SINGING IN CHURCHES.

IMPORTANCE OF CONGREGATIONAL
 SINGING IN CHURCHES.
 Rev. Dr. Talmage Says There Arc Four
 Schools of Singing, the New One Being
 the School of Christ - Helps and Ob-
 stacles.
 WASHINGTON, Sept. 26.-Dr. Talmage in this discourse rallies the churches to more hearty congregational singing and calls upon instruments of music to join in the praise of God The text is II Chronicles V, IS, "It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord. "
 The temple was done. It was the very chorus of all magnifcence and pomp. Splendor crowded against splen- dor. It was the diamond necklace of the earth. From the huge pillars crown cd with leaves and flowers and rows of pomegranate wrought out in furnished metal down even to the tongs and muffers made out of pure gold every thing was as complete as the God direct cd architect could make it. It seemed as if vision from heaven had alighted on the mountains The day for dedica- tion came. Tradition says that there were in and around about the temple on that day 900, 900 silver trumpets, 40, 900 harps, 0,000 timbrels and 200, 900 ringers, so that all modern demonstra- tions at Dusseldorf or Boston seem nothing compared with that. AS this great sound surged up amid the precious stones of the temple 1t must have seem- ed like the river of life dashing against the amethyst of the wall of heaven. The sound arose, and God, as if to show that he was we'll pleased with the mu sic which his children make in all ages, dropped into the midst of the temple cloud of glory so overpowering that the officiating priests were obliged to stop fin the midst of the services.
 Scored Music.
 There has been much discussion as to where music was born. I think that at the beginning, "when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy," the earth heard the echo. The cloud on which the angels stood to celebrate the creation was the birthplace of song. The stars that gilt ter at night are only so many keys of celestial pearl on which Gods fingers play the music of the spheres. Inani- mate nature is full of Gods stringed and wind instruments. Silence itself perfect silence-is only . musical rest in Gods great anthem of worship. Wind among the leaves, insect hum- ming in the summer air, the rush of pillow upon beach, the ocean far out sounding its everlasting psalm, the bobolink on the edge of the forest, the quail whistling up from the grass, are music. While visiting Blackwell's island I heard, coming from window of the lunatic asylum, very sweet song. It was sung by one who had lost her reason, and I have come to believe that even the deranged and disordered clements of nature would make music to our ear if we only had acuteness enough to listen. suppose that even the sounds in nature that are discordant and repulsive make harmony in Gods gar. You know that you may come so near to an orchestra that the sounds are painful instead of pleasurable, and I think that we stand so near devastating storm and frightfu1 whirlwind we can- not hear that which makes to Gods ear and the ear of the spirits above us music as complete as it is tremendous.
 propose to speak about sacred music, first showing you it's importance and then stating some of the obstacles to it's advancement.
 I draw the first argument for the i'm portance of sacred music from the fact that God commanded 1t. Through Paul he tells us to admonish one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Through David he cries out "Sing ye to God, all ye kingdoms of the earth. " And there are hundreds of other pas sages I might name, proving that 1t is as much 8 mans duty to sing as 1t is his duty to pray. Indeed think there kre more commands in the Bible to sing than there are to pray. God not only asks for the human voice, but for the instruments of music. He asks for the cymbal and the harn and the trumpet. And suppose that in the last days of the church the harp the lute, the trum- pet and all the instruments of music that have given their chief aid to the theater and bacchanal, will be brought by their masters and laid down at the feet of Christ and then sounded in the church's triumph on her way from suf- fering into glory. Praise ye the Lordr' Praise him with your voices. Praise him with stringed instruments and with organs.
 Secular Music.
 I draw another argument for the inn portance of this exercise from the inn pressiveness of the exercise. You know something of what secular music has achieved. You know it has made it's inn pression upon governments, upon laws, upon literature, upon whole genera lions. One inspiring national air Is worth 80, 900 men as standing army. There comes time in the battle when one bugle is worth LOGO muskets. In the earlier part of our civil war the government proposed to economize in bands of music, and many of them were sent home, but the generals in the ar my sent word to Washington: You arc making very great mistake. We are falling back and falling back. We have not enough music" have to tell you that no nation or church can afford to severely economize in music.
 Why should we rob the programmes of worldly gayety when we have so many appropriate songs and tunes com posed in our own day, as we'll as that magnificent inheritance of church psalmody which has come down fra grant with the devotions of other gen. erations-tunes no more worn out than when our greatgrandfathers climbed up en them from the church pew to glory? Dear old souls, how they used to singi And in those days there were cer- tain tunes married to certain hymns, and they have lived in peace great while, these two old people, and we have no right to divorce them. Born as