Owingsville outlook. [volume] (Owingsville, Ky.) 1879-192?, 1898-06-16
THE SUNDAY SERVICES.
vigor, Even vNacity. Needed in the Re-
Iigion OF this Day and Age.
Hearty Congregational singing II Helpful
to worshipers The Day Of the schema,
Long Faced Church Member II
Past sermon by Rev. 7. De-
VIII T,lmagc. DID.

If the people understood religion Ia
he the practical reinforcement that
Dr. 1almagc snyS it is in this sermon.
the number of Christian disciples
would bc greatly multiplied Text
Psalm M. =: Send thee help from
the sanctuary.
II You should ask 30 men what the
church i, they would give you - diff
frrcnt answers. One man would say:
Its convention of hyrocritcS." An
other. ut is an ass mbly of people
who feel themselves Il great deal bet
ter than others" Another, 1t is
place for gossip. where Nolvcr-
inc dispositions dcvour each 9th,
rr." Another. 1t i u place
for the cultivation of superstition and
cant" Another, 1T j. an arsenal
where thrologians go and get pixies
and muskctS and shot Another, 1t
is an art gallery. where men go To adj
mire grand arches and exquisite frcs-
60 and musical warblc and the Dlnt-
esqnc in gloomy imagery. Another
man would say, 1T is the best place
on earth except my own home. IF
forget thee, q Jerusalem, let my right
hand forget her cunning"
Now; whatever the church i, my
text tells you what it ought To be--a
great, practical, homcly, omnipotcnt
help Send thee help from the sane
tuary." The pew ought to yield rest
fulncss for the body. The color of tn
upholstery ought to yield pleasure to
the eye.
The entire service ought To yield
strength for the moil and struggle of
everyday life. The sabbath ought To
be- harncsSrd To all the six days of the
week, dra awning them in the right di-
rection. The church ought to lie a
magnet. visibly and nightly affecting
all the homes of the worshipers.
Every man gets roughly joStled,
gets abused. gets cut, gets insuited,
gets sighted, gets eNaspcratcd. By
the time the sabbath comes he
has an accumulation of six days of an
noyance, and that is starveling
church service which has not strength
enough To take that accumulated an
noyance and hurl it into perdition.
The business man sits down in church
headachy from the weeks engage
mcnts. Perhaps he wishes he had tar
ried at home on the lounge with the
newspapers and the slippers. That
man wants To be cooled off and graz
ciously diverted. The first wave of
the religious service ought TO dash
clear over the hurricane decks and
LOW. hin, Il ~ ,,.ith HOLY nd al
and heavenly emotion. Send thee
help from the sanctuary"
In the first place, sanctuary help
ought to come from the music. A
woman dying in England persisted in
singing tn the last moment. The at
PENDANTS tried to persuade her to stop,
saving IT would exhaust her and make
her disease worse. She wcred, Il
must sing; am only practicing for
the heavenly choir" Music on earth
is rehearsal for music in Heaven. If
you and are going to take part in
that great orchestra it is high time
that we were stringiug and drumming
our harps. They tell us that Thalberg
and Gottschalll never would go into n
concert until they hal first in private
rehearsed, although they were such
masters of the instrument. And can
it he that we expect to take part in
the great oratorio of Heaven if we do
not rehearse here?
But i am not speaking of the next
world. Sabbath song ought to set all
the week to music. We want not more
harmony, not more artistic expression.
but more volume in our church mus &
The English dissenting churches far
surpass our American churches in this
respect. An English audience of ZOO
people will give mos yelsasaunsnSSred
song than an American audi, 81 .,u0e
people. do not know what reason is.
Oh, you ought to have heard them
sing in Surrey chapel. had the OPP
portunity of preaching the anniver-
sary-I think the ninetieth anniver-
say-sermon in Rowland Hills old
chapel, and when they lifted their
voices in solemn song it was simply
overwhelming, and then in the even
ing of the same day. in Agricultural
hall, many thousand voices lifted in
doxology. 1t was like the voice of
many waters, and like the voice of
many thunderings, and like the voice
of Heaven.
The blessing through all the laboring throng.
And Heaven was won by violence of song.
Now, am no worshiper of noise,
but / believe that if our American
churches would with full heartiness of
soul, and full emphasis of voice sing
the songs of Zion, this part of sacred
worship would have tenfold more
power than it has now. Why not take
this part of the sacred service and lift
it to where it ought to be. All the an
noyances of life might be drowned out
by that sacred song. Do you tell me
that it is not fashionable to sing very
loudly? Then, | say, away with the
fashion. We dam back the great Mis-
sissippi of congregational singing and
let a few drops of melody trickle
through the dam. | say, take away
the dam and let the pillows roar on
their way to the oceanic heart of God
Whether it is fashionable to sing loud
ly or not, let us sing with all possible
emphasis.
We hear great deal of the art of
singing, of music as an entertainment,
of music as a recreation. II is high
time we heard something of music as
a help, a practical help. In order to
do this we must have only a few
hymns. New. tunes and new hymns
every Sunday make poor congrega-
tional singing Fifty hymns are
enough for fifty years. The Epis-
copal church prays the same pray
ers every Sabbath, and year after
year, and century after century. For
that reason they have hearty r.
sponses Let MS take a hint from
that fact and let us sing the same
songs Sabbath after Sabbath. Only
in that way can we come to the full
force of this exercise. Twenty thou
sand years will not wear out the
hymns of William Cowper, Charles
Wesley and Isaac Watts Suppose
now each person in an audience has
brought all the annoyances of the last
s85 days. Fill the room to the cell
ing with sacred song, and you would
| droxvn ont all thoSa annovapcae - a..