The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1897-11-04
ton or church can afford 20 savarelv
economize in music.

VI worldly gayety when we have so
many app 'opriate songs and tunes
eoniposed III our own day, as well as
'Aat magnificent Inheritance of church
psalmody which has come down fra
grant with the devotions of other gem
eratlons-tunes no more worn out than
when our great-grandfathers climbed
up on them from the church pew to
glory? Dear old souls, how they used
10 sing! And in those days there were
certain tunes married to certain hymns,
! ana they have lived in peace great
| "hlie, 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 It is
absurd for millionaire to steal.
Many of you are illustrations of
what sacred song can do. Through
it 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 or
Toplady, the love of Jesus was sung to
Y ur soul, then you surrendered, as an
armed castle that could not be taken
by host, lifts its window to listen to a
harps trill. e.
There was Scotch soldier diving in
New Orleans, and 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 Dickenson, be-
ginning with the words:
Oh, mother dear Jerusale
When shall l 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
said to the minister: ''Where did you
learn thats" Why" replied the min
lister, my mother taught me that"
so 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. Luthers SER
mons have been forgotten, but his
Judgment Hymn sings on through the
ages, and will keep on singing until
the blast of the archangeIs 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 certainly as the birds brought
food to Elijah 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!
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 anxiety, yet
perhaps in the singing Of the first
hymn you lost them all. You have
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 We're 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
reioiced, and the windows we're 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 yor
not know that Il singing church is al
ways triumphant church? If con
gregation is silent during the exercise
or partially silent, it is the silence O.
death. If when the hymn is given ou
you hear the faint hum of here ant
there father and mother in Israel
minister of Christ who is presiding
needs to have a very strong constitu
ton if he does not get the chills. liz
needs not only the grace of God, bu
nerves like whale bone. 1t is amazing
how some people with voice enough t.
discharge all their duties IN the world
when they come into the house of Coo
have no voice to discharge this duty
| really believe that if the Church o
Christ could rise up and sing as i
ought to sing, where we have a hun
dred souls brought into the kingdom
of Christ there would be Il Thousand
How was it in olden times? Cajetal
said: Luther conquered us by hi
songs"
But l must now speak OF some of tn
obstacles in the way of the advance
ment of this sacred music, and the frs
, is that it has been impressed into tn
service of Satan. l ain fa~ from beliey
ing that music ought always to be pos
J lively religious. Refined art has opene
: places where music has been sec
ularized, and awfully SO. The draw
: ing-room, the concert, by the gratifica
!, ton of pure taste, and the productio
; of harmless amusement and the in