The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-09-27
~PRAISE YE THE LORD"
SACRED MUSIC AND THE OBSTA-
Giles TO ITS ADVANCEMENT.

cation on Praise WOrship-A De-
Tense of Old Fashioned Hymn
Times-The Delegation of Prnise
worship to the Church Choir COa-
demned-"A Singing Church Is Al
WAYS a triumphant Church.
Washington. Sept 26.-Dr. Talmage in
this discourse rallies the churches to more
hearty congregational singing. and calls
uDon instruments of music to join in the
praise of God. The text is II Chron. .: %;
1t came even TO pass, as the trumpeters
and singers were as one, to make one
sound 10 be heard in praising and thank
ing the Lord.
The temple was done. It was the very
chorus of all magnifcence and pomp.
splendor crowded against splendor. 1t
was the diamond necklace of the earth.
From the huge pillars crowned with leaves
and flowers and rows of pomegranate
wrought out in FURNISHED metal, down even
TO the tongs and shutters made out of pure
gold everything was as complete as the
God-directed architect could make il. It
seemed as if a vision from heaven had
alghted on the mountains The day for
dedication came. Tradition says that
there were in and around about the tenn
ole On that day two hundred thousand
silver trumpets, forty thousand
harps. forty thousand timbrels, and two
hundred thousand singers; so that all
modern demonstrations at Dusseldorf or
Boston seem nothing compared with that.
As this great sound surged up amid the
precious stones of the temple, it must have
seemed like the River of Life dashing
against the amethyst of the wall of heav-
en-. The sound arose, and God, as if TO
show that he was well pleased with the
music which his children make in all
ages, dropped into the midst of the temple
cloud of glory SO empowering that the
officiating priests were obliged to stop in
the midst of the services.
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" that the earth heard the
echo. The cloud on which the angels
stood to celebrate the creation was the
birthplace of song. The stars that glitter
at night are only so many keys of celestial
pearl, on which Gods fingers play the
music of the spheres. Inanimate nature is
full of Gods stringed ana wind instru-
ments. Silence itself-perfect silence-is
only a musical rest in Gods great anthem
of worship. Wind among the leaves, in
sect humming in the summer air, the rush
of biloW upon beach, the ocean far out
sounding its everlasting psalm, the bobo-
link on the edge of the forest, the quail
whstling up from the grass, are music.
While visiting Blackwells Island, heard,
coming from a window of the lunatic
asylum, a very sweet song. 1t was sung
by one who had lost her reason and 1
have come to believe that even the de-
ranged and disordered elements of nature
would make music to our ear If We only
had acuteneess enough to listen. l sup
pose that even the sounds in nature that
are discOrdant and repulsive make har-
mony in Gods ear. You know that you
may come so near TO an orchestra that the
sounds are painful instead of pleasurable,
and l think that we stand so near devas
tating storm and frightfui whirlwind. we
cannot 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 its Importance and then
stating some Of the obstacles to its ad-
vancement.
?
portance of sacred music from the fact
that God commanded it. Through Paul
he tells us TO admonish one another in
psalms and hymns and spiritual songs;
through David he cries out: Sing We to
God all We kingdoms of the earth" And
there are hundreds of other passages
might name. proving that it is as much a
mans duty to sing as it is his duty to
pray. Indeed l think there are 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
harp and the trumpet And l suppose
that in the last days of the church the
harp, the lutte, the trumpet, and all the
Instruments of music that have given
their chief aid to the theater and baccha-
nal, 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 suffering into glory. praise
We the Lord!' Praise him with your
voices. Praise him with stringed instru-
ments and with organs.
/ 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 its i'm
preston upon governments, upon laws,
upon literature, upon whole generations
One inspiring national air is worth thirty
thousand men as standing army. There
comes time in the battle when one busle
is worth a thousand muskets. In the
earlier part of our civil war the govern
ment proposed to economic in bands OF
music, and many of them were sent home:
but the generals in the army sent word to
Washington; You are making verv
great mistake. We are falling back and
falling back. We have not enough mu-
sic" l have to tell you that no nation
or church can afford to severely ecouo-
mize in music.
Why should we rob the programmes of
worldly gaiety when we have so many an
propriate songs and tunes composed in our
own day, as well as that magnificent in
heritance of church psalmody which has
come down fragrant with the devotions Of
other OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES no more worn
out than when our great-grandfathers
climbed up on them from the church pew
10 glory? Dear old souls, how they used
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
10 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