The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1898-06-17

at is an art gallery, where men go to
admire grand arches, and exquisite
fresco and musical MARBLE, and the
Dantesque in gloomy imagery" An
other man would say, at is the best
place on earth except my own home
IF | forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my
right hand forget her cunning"
Now, whatever the church is, my
text tells you what it ought to be; a
great, practical, homely omnipotent
help "Send thee help from'the sane.
tuary" The pew ought to yield rest
fulness for the body. The color of the
upholstery ought to yield pleasure to
the eye. The entire service ought to
yield strength for the moil and strug-
gle of every day life. The sabbath
ought TO be harnessed to all the six
days of the week, drawing them in the
right direction. The church ought to
be magnet, visibly and nightly af-
fecting all the homes of the worship
ers. Every man gets roughly jostled,
gets abused, gets cut, gets insulted,
gets sighted, gets eNasperated. BY
the time the Sabbath comes he has an
accumulation of six days of annoyance,
and that is starveling church service
which has not strength enough to take
that accumulated annoyance and hurl
it into perdition. The business nan
sits down in church headachey from
the weeks engagements. Perhaps he
wishes he had tarried at home on the
lounge with the newspapers and the
slippers. That man wants to be cooled
off, and graciously diverted. The first
wave of the religious service ought to
dash clear over the hurricane decks,
and leave him dripping with the holy
and glad 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 to the last moment. The at
tendants tried to persuade her to stop
saying it would exhaust her and make
her disease worse. She answered, II
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 stringing and drumming
our harps. They tell MS that Talberg
and Gottschalk never would go into a
concert until they had first in private
rehearsed, although they were such
masters of the instrument. And can
it be that we expect to take part in
the great oratorio of Heaven If we do
not rehearse here?
But 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 ex-
preston, but more volume in our
church music The English dissent
ing churches far surpass our Ameri-
can churches in this respect, An Eng
lish audience of 1000 people will give
more volume of sacred song than an
American audience of 1000 people. |
do not know what the reason is Oh,
you ought to have heard them sing in
Surrey chapel, | h ad the opportunity
of preaching the anniversary think
the ninetieth anniversary-serm in
Rowland Hills old chapel, and when
they lifted their voices in sacred song
it was simply overwhelming; and,
then in the evening 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 thuuderings, and like
the voice of Heaven.
Now, | am no worshiper of noise,
but | believe that il our American
churches would with full heartness OF
soul, and full emphasis of voice sing
the songs of Zion, this part of sacred
worship would have tenfold more
power than il has now. Why not take
this part of the sacred service and lift
it where it ought to be2 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-
tsis1lppi of congregational singing and
let a few drops of melody trickle
GthH5agh the dam. | say, take away
ythe,Aam and let the pillows roar or
their way TO the oceanic heart of God
Whether it is fashionable to sing loud
lily ornst let us sing with all possible
emphasis
We hear a great deal of the art Of
singing, ,6 music as an entertainment
.of music as a recreation. 1t is high
time we .heapd something of music a:
salhelp a practical help, In order tC
do this we must have only few
hymns. New funes and new hymns
every Sunday quake poor congrega
tional singing. Fifty hymns are
enough for sc years. The Episcopa
schurch' prayssthe same prayers every
Sabbath, and,year after year, and cen
fury after century. For that reason
they have the hearty responses. lie
sus take a. hint from. that fact and lie