The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1897-10-08

There was a Scotch soldier dying IL
New Orleans, and a Scotch minister
came in to give him the consolation
of the Gospel. The man turned ovei
on his pillow and said: Don't talk tt
me about religion" Then the minister
began to sing a familiar hymn tha-
was composed by David Dickinson, be
ginning with the words:
oh, mother dear, Jerusalem,
When shall come to thee7
He sang it to the tune of Dundee, an6
everybody in Scotland knows that
and, as he began to sing, the dying
soldier turned over on his pillow anC
said to the minister: Where did yoU
learn that?" why" replied the min.
lister, 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 TO Christ. Oh, it has
an irresistible power. Luther's SER
mons have been forgotten, but his
Judgment Hymn sings on through the
ages, and will keep on singing until
the blast of the archangePs trumpet
shall bring about that very day which
the hymn celebrates. l 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, Sc
| 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 pertub baton. You
may have come in here with Il great
many wOrriments and anxiety, yet
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. 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
rejoiced, and the windows were 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 you
not know that a singing church is all
ways triumphant church? If con-
gregation is silent during the exercise
or partially silent, it is the silence of
death. If when the hymn is given out
you hear the faint hum of here and
there n father and mother in Israel,
while the vast majority are silent, that
minister of Christ who is presiding
needs to have very strong constitu-
ton if he does not get the chills. lie
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 discharge this duty.
l really believe that if the Church of
Christ could rise up and sing as it
ought to sing, where we have hun
dred souls brought into the kingdom
of Christ there would be thousand.
How was it in Olden times? Cajetau
said: Luther conquered us by his
songs"
But l must now speak of some of the
obstacles in the way of the advance
ment of this sacred music, and the first
is that it has been impressed into the
service of Satan. | am far from believ-
ing that music ought always to be posi-
Il L.
places where music has been sec
ularized, and awfully so. The draw
ing-roOm, the concert, by the gratifca-
ton of pure taste, and the production
of harmless amusement and the i'm
prOvement of talent, have become very
strong forces in the advancement
of our civilization. Music has as much
right to laugh in Surrey gardens as it
has to pray in st. Paurs. In the king
dom of nature we have the glad fling
of the wind as well as the long me tire
psalm of the thunder. But, while all
this is SO. every observer has noticed
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 COM
poser. 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
that ought to have been
devoted to Christ, captured from the
church and applied to the purposes of
sin.
Another obstacle has been an inor-
dinate fear of criticism. The vast ma
jority of people singing in church new
er want anybody else to hear them
sing. Every body is waiting for some
body else to do his duty. If we all |
sang then the inaccuracies that are evil |
dent when only few sing would be |
drowned out. God asks you to do as |
we'll 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 |
anu INC TeHch SChOOl OI singing.
Now, l would like to add a fourth |
school. and that is the school of Christ |
The voice of contrite, broken heart. |
although it may not be able to stand
human criticism, makes better music to
Gods ear than the most artistic per-
Torrance when the heart is wanting. |
Sod calls on the beasts, on the cattle,
IN the dragons, to praise Him, and we |
ought not to be behind the cattle and |
.he dragons.
Another obstacle in the advancement
If this art has been the erroneous no
ion tn this m IF Of tho rorr;n % nn,,ld |