Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1897-09-27

church music, augmented by the COM
positions Of artists III cur day, we ought
net to be tempted out Of the sphere of
Christian harmony and try to seek IN
consecrated sounds. It is absurd for q
Millionaire to steal.
Many OF yen are Illustrations Of what
q. sacred song can do. Through it you
we're brought into the kingdom Of Jesus
Christ You stood out against the warn
ing AID the argument OF the pulpit, but
vixen, in the sweet words of Charles
wesley or John Newton or Toplady, the
love CT Jesus was sang to your soul,
then you surrendered, as an armed cas-
tie that could net be taken by host
lifts its window to listen 60 harps
trill
There was 81 Scotch soldier dying in
New Orleans, and q Scotch minister
came in to give him TIE consultations of
the gospel. The man turned over On his
pillow and said, Don't talk to me
about religion - Then the minister be
gan to sing g familiar hymn that was
composed By David Dickinson, begin
ming with the words:
Oh, mother dear, Jerusalem,
When shall come to thee?
Tc sang it to the tune Of Dundee, -
and everybody in Scotland knows that,
and as he began to sing the dying sol
der turned over on his pillow and said
to the minister, .'Where did you learn
that?' why" replied the minister,
''ny mother taught me that. " $50 did
mine, - said the dying soldier, and the
very foundation of his heart was up
turned, and then and there he yielded
himself to Christ. Oh, it has an ire
sistible power! Luther's sermons have
been forgotten, but his Judgment
Hymn sings on through the ages and
will keep on singing until the blast of
the archangel's trumpet shall bring
about that very day which the hymn
celebrates I would to God that you
would take these songs Of salvation as
messages from heaven, for just as GER
tainly as the birds brought food to Eli
jah by the brook Ckerith so these wing
ed harmonies, God sent, are flying to
your soul with the bread of life. Open
your mouth and take it, O hungry Eli
jah!
Soothing Music.
l have also noticed the power Of sa-
cred song to sOothe perturbation You
may have come in here with q great
many worriments and anxieties yet
perhaps in the singing of the first hymn
you lost then 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 il
the darkness. Nothing could bring him
forth until Franeli 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
splerdors Of the court could not do the
power Of song accomplished IL you
have anxieties and 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 cut Of you.
It also arouses to action. Do you not
know that @ singing church is always q
riu2phant church? IL a congregation
is silent during the exercise, or partially
silent, it is the silence Of death. II
when the hymn is given out you hear
the faint hun Of here and there father
and mother III Israel, while the vast
majority are silent, that minister Of
Christ who is presiding needs to have a
very strong constitution if he does not
get the chills. He needs not only the
grace Of God, but nerves like WhalebOne.
It is amazing how some people with
voice enough TO discharge all their du
ties in the world, when they come into
the horse Of God have no voice to dis
if the church Of Christ could rise up
and sing as it ought to sing, where we
have 100 souls brought into the king
dom Of Christ there would be 1000.
How was 1t in olden time? Cajetan
said, Luther conquered US by his
songs.
But l must now speak Of some of the
obstacles in the way of the advancement
Of this sacred music, and the first is
that it has been impressed into the serv-
ice Of satan I am far from believing
that music ought always to be positive
~ religious. Refined art has opened
places where music has been secular
lied. and lawfully SO. The drawing
room, the concert, by the gratifica-
tion of pure taste and the produc-
tion of harmless amusement and the
Improvement Of talent, have become
very forces i'll the advancement Of our
civilization. Music has as much right
to laugh i'll Surrey gardens as it has to
pray in St. Paul's In the kindgom 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 noticed that this art,
whichFGod intended for the improve
ment of the ear, and the voice, and the
head, and the heart, has often been i'm
pressed into the service Of error. Tar
TIM the musical cOmDOser. dreamed