The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-09-27

minister, Ny mere dlu you learn LndlE
why" replied Che minister, my mother
taught me that" 80 did mine" said the
dying soldier: and the very foundation of
his heart was upturned, and then and
there he yielded himself 10 Christ Oh, Il
has an irresistible power! Luther's ser
mons have been forgotten, but his Judge
ment Hymn sings on through the ages,
and viii keep on singing until the blast
of the archangels trumpet shall bring
about that very day which the hymn cele-
brates. 1 would 10 God that you would
take these songs of salvation as message
from heaven; for just as certainly as the
birds brought food 10 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!
I have also noticed the power of sacred
song 10 soothe perturbation. You may
have come in here with a great many
worriments and anxietics, vet 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. A Spanish king
was melancholy The windows were all
closed. He sat in the darkness. Nothing
could bring him forth until Franeli came
and discoursed music for three or four
dogs TO him. on the fourth day he looked
up and Wept and reJ0iCed, and The win
dows were thrown open, and that which
all the splendors of the court could not
do, the power of song accomplished. If
you have auXieties ana worriments try
this heavenly 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 a singing church is always a
triumphant church? If a congregation Is
,4, tfaIf4
lent it is the silence Of death. If when
the hymn is given out you hear the faint
hum of here and there a father and moth
err in Israel, while the vast majority are
silent, that minister of Christ who is pre-
siding needs 20 have a very strong consti-
tuition If he does not get the chills. He
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 dis
charge this duty. I really believe that II
the church of Christ could rise up and
sing as il ought to sing, when we have a
hundred souls brought into the kingdom
of Christ there would be a thousand
How was it in olden time? Cajetan sad
Luther conquered us by his songs"
But 1 must now speak of some of the
obstacles in the way of the advancement
of this sacred music, and the first is that
satan. 1 am far from believing that mu-
sic ought always to be positively religious
Refined art has opened places where mu-
sic has been secularized, and lawfully So
The drawing room, the concert, by the
qualification of pure taste and the produc-
ton of harmless amusement and the i'm
provement of talent, have become very
forces in the advancement of our civiliZa-
ton. Music has as much right to laugh in
Surrey Gardens as it has to pray in st.
Paurs. In the kingdom of nature we have
the glad fling of the wind as well as the
long meter psalm of the thunder. But,
while all this is So every observer has no.
ticed 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 composer 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 inordinate
fear of criticism, The vast majority of
people singing in church never want any,
body else to hear them sing. Everybody
is waiting for somebody else to do his
duty If we all sang then the inaccura-
sing would be drowned out. God asks
you to do as well 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. An
gels 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, L am tOld-the
German school, the Italian school and
the French school of singing. Now, /
would like to add a fourth school, and
that is the school of Christ. The voice
OF a contrte, broken heart, although it
may not be able to stand human crit-
csm, makes better music to Gods ear
than the most artistic performance when
the heart is wanting. God calls on the
beasts, on the cattle, on the dragons, to
praise him, and we ought not to be behind
the cattle and the dragons.
Another obstacle in the advancement of
this art has been the erroneous notion
that this part of the service could be
conducted by delegation. Churches have
said: "Oh, what an easy time We shall
have. The minister will do the preaching,
and the choir will do the singing, and we
will have nothing to do" And you know
as we'll as l that there are a great null
titude of churches all through this land
where the people are not expected to sing.
The whole work is done by delegation of
four or six or ten persons, and the audi
ence are silent In such a church in SYRIA
cuse an old elder persisted in singing and
so the choir appointed a committee to go
and ask the elder If he would not stop.
You know that in many churches the
choir are expected to do all the singing,
and the great mass of the people are ex-
pected to be silent. and if you utter your
voice you are interfering. In that church
they stand, the four with opera glasses
dangling at their side. singing Rock of
Ages, Cleft for Me-" with the same spirit
that the night before on the stage, they
took their part in the Grand Duchesse or
Don Giovanni.
My Christian friends. have we right
to delegate to others the discharge of this
duty which God demands of us? Suppose
that four wood-thrushes propose to do all
the singing some bright day. when the
woods are ringing with bird voices. 1t is
decided that four wood thrushes shall do
all the singing of the forest. Let all other
voices keep silent. How beautifully the
four MARBLE. 1t is really fine music But
how long will you keep the forest still?
Why, Christ would come into that forest
and look up, as he looked through the
olives. and he would wave his hand and
say, Let everything that hath breath