The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1897-10-01
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the GOu-ulGeCleu dICulleCl NOuiN i
it. 1t seemed as if a vision from
heaven had alighted on the mountains
The day for dedication came. Iraul-
ton says that there were in and arouhu
about the temple on that day two hun
bred thousand silver trumpets, lorly
thousand harps, forty thousand TIM
brels, and two hundred thousand sing
ers; so that all modern DEMONSTRATORS
at Dusseldorf or Boston seem nothing
compared with that. AS this great
sound surged up amid the precious
stones of the temple, it must nave
seemed like the River of Life dashlng
against the amethyst Of the wall OF
heaven 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 overpower-
ing that the officiating priests were
obliged to stop in the midst of the SER
vices
There has been much discussion as
to where music was born. 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 angel stood to celebrate the crea-
ton 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 and wind Instruments
Silence itself-perfect silence-is only
a musical rest in Gods great anthem
insect humming in the summer air, the
rush of billow 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 Blackwells
Island, heard, coming from window
CT the lunatic asylum, very sweet
song. 1t was sung by one who had
lost her reason, and | have come to be-
lieve that even the deranged and disor-
dered elements Of nature would make
music to our ear, if we only had acute
ness enough to listen. | suppose that
even the sounds in nature that are dis
cordant and repulsive make harmony
in Gods ear You know that you may
come so near to an orchestra that the
sounds are painful instead of pleasur-
able, and l think that we stand so near
devastating storm and frightful whirl-
wind, we cannot hear that which makes
to Gods ear and the ear of the spirits
above us a music as complete as it is
tremendous.
l propose to speak about sacred mu-
sic, first showing you its Importance
and then stating some of the obstacles
to its advancement.
| draw the first argument for the i'm
portance of sacred music from the fact
that God commanded it. Through
Paul he tells us to admonish one an
other to psalms and hymns and spirtu
al songs; through David he cries out:
Sing We to God, all we kingdoms of the
earth" And there are hundreds of
other passages l might name, proving
that it is as much 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 in
struments of music that have given
their chief aid to the theater and bac
chanal, will be brought by their mas
ters and laid down at the feet of Christ
and then sounded in the church's tri-
umph on her way from suffering into
glory. Praise We the Lord" Praise
him with your voices. Praise him
with stringed instruments and with
organs.
I draw another argument for the i'm
portance of this exercise from the i'm
nressiveness of the exercise. You
know something of what secular mu-
sic has achieved. You know it has
made its impression upon governments.
upon laws, upon literature, upon whole
generations. One inspiring national
air is worth thirty thousand men as a
standing army. There comes time in
the battle when one bugle is worth
thousand muskets. In the earlier part
of our civil war the government pro-
posed 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 very
great mistake We are falling back
and falling back. We have not enough
music" 1 have to tell you that no
nation or church can afford to severely
economic in music.
Why should we rob the programmes
of worldly gaiety when we have so
many appropriate songs and tunes
composed in our own day, es well 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 great-grandfathers climbed
up on them from the church pew to