The herald., 1897-11-01
The Rev. B. w. R. TayIer
on Church Music
THE LACK OF MORAL COURAGE
WHY MORE POSITIVE GOOD IS
NOT DONE
Burt Estes Howard Scores CONNER
cial Considerations-Dav
Walk on Revivals

day morning, for the first time in tn
diocese of Los Angeles the full cathedra
morning service, including the chora
litany, was sung The service was G
careful reproduction of English cathe
dral worship; the intoning was done b.
the Rev. B. w. r. Tayler and the re-
sponses were sung by vested choir OF
thirty voices, with Waldo Farringdor
Chase at the organ.
The rector took his text from Ephesi-
ans,v, 19: Singing and making melody in
your heart to the Lord" He said in part:
When we trace the worship of God
through the Biblical records we shall
find two dominant ideas in worship
namely: sacrifice and song. And these
two ideas have kept together all through
succeeding ages until we find that the
grandest music which has ever been
written by man has been composed in
connection with the great Eucharistic
sacrifice.
Song and sacrifice still hold the lead
ing places in holy worship. and ever will,
for one is the highest tribute which man
can render God, and the other is the
highest service which God has rendered
man. And from the time when the morn
ing stars sang together and all the sons
of God shouted for joy to that time when
before the awful throne and majesty Of
God we shall join with cherubim and
seraphim in hymning the glorious
praises of the eternal trinity, the voice
of song and melody shall hold its due
nj v,Ia v,rl,o nd
men meet together to worship Him who
sits upon the sapphire throne.
He who does not admit of the refin
ing power of music, whether in the home
or in the church, is lost to sense of
one of the glories of the universe. OF
such one Shakespeare says:
The man that hath no music in his soul
And is not moved by the concordance of
sweet sounds,
Is fit for treason, strategy and strife.
We have read of it's power tanning saw
ages and of how it has soothed and fas-
cinated the deadly cobra ready to strike
it's fangs into the unSuSpecting child.
This church of ours has given to the
world a distinct type of church music,
a school which is as severely removed
from the Moody and Sankey variety on
the one hand as it is removed from the
florid mass compositions of the Italian
schools on the other. 1t is a school
which embraces such names as Bennett,
Elvey, Goss, Stainer. Dykes. Jarle.
Woodward. Barnby. Farrant, Hopkins.
Monk, Owseley and a score of the most
noted musicians of modern or ancient
TIM. The English cathedral service
HIS been q distinct outgrowth of the
ileas of the church in her worship, as
the cathedrals themselves have been the
outgrowth of the faith and piety of our
English forefathers.
Now. all writer's on liturgiology have
admitted that the Christian church dis
tinctly patterned its music after the type
of the Jewish church. When our Lord
was on earth He frequented the tenn
pie services, and thus gave His divine
sanction to them. The well-known
Gregoran tones, in their massive splen-
dor We're not composed by Gregory, as
is often imagined they are simply ar
rangements of Hebrew melodies sung
centuries before Gregory the Great.
OF late years there has been intro
duced the florid Italian style of music
in the church of Rome, which the pres
ent pope is wisely seeking to restrain.
Whether we search in our own church
OF in the Greek church or in the Roman
church or in the ancient Hebrew serv-
ice, we shall invariably find that the
worship of God was made glorious with
every accessory of ritual and music
which devotion could offer and rever-
ence inspire. And in this we are simply
striving to initiate, so far as possible,
the worship of heaven as revealed to us
in glimpses by Isaiah and the holy
Apostle st. John.
But let us ever bear in mind that that
alone which makes any worship accept
able to God is the sincere heart which
accompanies it. Without this the most
elaborate ritual or the most superb
music is useless and void. The sincere
heart, in it's approach to God in worship,
will try to remember that which is pleas
ing to God, and will offer him the best
it has to offer The highest expression
of the human heart is alteration, as the
highest expression of the human voice
is sacred song. May holy song and true
alteration ever link themselves in our
services of the sanctuary until, with
angels and archangels and all the COM
pany of heaven. we laud and glorify
His holy name" in the eternal worship
of heaven.
A TRUE REVIVAL